Anything Could Happen
by abbyli
Summary: Bonnie Bennett knew everything had changed the moment that she woke up naked next to Damon Salvatore. But then again, when that pregnancy test showed up positive, she found herself not really regretting what had happened.
1. one night

**entitled: **Anything Could Happen

**summary: **Bonnie Bennett knew that everything had changed the moment she woke up next to Damon Salvatore. But then again, when that pregnancy test showed up positive, she found herself not really regretting what had happened. post season 5

**pairings/characters: **bamon, steroline, past-delena, bonenzo (friendship), vampire!matt

**warning: **This fic is very anti-Elena. Just a heads up.

**rating: **t

**disclaimer: **I do not own the Vampire Diaries or it's characters.

**notes: **I know this idea has been done to death but I thought to myself, why the hell not?

ps: Title from Ellie Goulding's amazing song.

**.**

**.**

**.**

'after the war we said we'd fight together  
i guess we thought that's just what humans do  
letting darkness grow  
as if we need its palette and we need its colour  
but now i've seen it through  
and now i know the truth'**  
****-'anything could happen', ellie goulding**

**.**

**.**

Life was slowly returning to normal in Mystic Falls.

Well, as normal as things can get in a town inhabited by vampires, werewolves, and witches.

Coming back from the Other Side for the second time in less than a year - well, to put it simply, it was a bit exhausting. At least she wasn't the Anchor this time.

Bonnie Bennett wasn't surprised by a few things that had changed when she returned. Like, Stefan and Caroline had finally gotten together and Stefan had given Elena the big brush off at last. For Stefan and Caroline, it hadn't been all sunshine and roses like Caroline had hoped. They fought like cats and dogs over stupid little things that actually meant nothing. But in the end, they were crazy for each other.

Damon had gone right back to Elena, probably the moment that they landed back into the land of the living. For a while there, it looked like things would be the same.

But they weren't.

* * *

She had found Jeremy at the Grille, drinking his little heart out. She didn't know and didn't care how he obtained the liquor. All she wanted -

All she wanted was for him to hold her.

And at that moment, when Bonnie looked into his eyes, she knew that something had changed between the two of them. Something that could never be fixed.

They talked for what seemed like hours but was maybe forty minutes before Bonnie excused herself as politely as she could. She had to scream. She had to shout and yell and jump up and down because this wasn't fair. None of this was fair. She didn't ask to be brought back as the Anchor. She didn't ask to have the suffer the pain of every supernatural death and she didn't ask to give up her life (again) to bring back nearly fifty supernatural creatures that didn't deserve to be brought back.

And she didn't ask to be sent to the crumbling Other Side for another trip with Damon fucking Salvatore.

* * *

He could tell Elena was lying through her teeth when she told him that everything was absolutely wonderful now that he was back from the dead.

She knew he had spent that time over there with Bonnie. She could tell that they didn't hate each other anymore. She knew that they even liked each other a little bit.

And she was jealous.

In another world, another time, Damon Salvatore would have enjoyed this. He would have enjoyed being the center of jealousy and would have lorded it over her for as long as he could.

But now -

Now, he was tired. Now, he just wanted to go back to things the way they were before.

Finally, that subject came to a head and it resulted in a screaming fight that ended with a few things being broken to bits. To which that, the outcome was with him storming from the house in a towering rage and the driving urge to track down the nearest human vessel to drain dry.

He does come across a late night jogger and taps her jugular for a few ounces but stops himself when her eyes begin to glaze over. He quickly presses some of his blood to her lips and sends her on her way with the memory of an LSD trip.

He considers heading for the Grille but decides against it, making for some seedy bar that he knows not even princess Elena would end up in.

Boy, is he surprised to see a little witch staggering out the front door instead.

* * *

Damon melds into the shadows, watching as the tiny green eyed brunette comes out on the arm of some big biker guy with tattoos all the way up his arms and a gold hoop earring. He suddenly as the impression of the pirate Blackbeard and hides a smirk as the man proceeds to steer Bonnie towards his car.

"Oh, thank you so much, sonny," Bonnie chuckles tipsily. "But I think I shall walk from here."

"Oh, let me take you home, honey-pie," Blackbeard says with his own chuckle. "It's right on my way."

"What, to my home or your den of iniquity?" Bonnie replies.

Damon peers a little closer and notices that Bonnie is not as drunk as he originally thought.

Blackbeard gazes down at Bonnie like he has never seen anything quite like her before for just a few moments before he makes a split second decision. His arms latch around her waist and proceed to pull her up over his shoulder, Bonnie letting out a yell that could be heard in Texas.

Damon barely as a chance to move towards them before Blackbeard is shouting out in agony, dropping Bonnie with a thud to the concrete ground and clawing at his own arms. Large white and red boils are bursting up and down his arms and neck, making their way up his throat and to the top of his head. The man cries out again and takes off like a shot into the darkness, his painful screams echoing behind him.

Damon can't help himself. He begins to applaud as he steps out of his hidden corner, watching as Bonnie pulls herself to her feet and brushes herself off. She herself lets out a groan of distaste when she sees him, rolling her eyes almost all the way into the back of her head.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" Bonnie says.

"I should ask you the same thing, little witch," Damon says. "This isn't the kind of place that I thought I'd see someone like you at."

"I'd say that too, except then I stop and remember who you are," Bonnie returns with a snap. "Now, if you'll excuse me." She begins to walk towards her car and trips over her own feet, beginning to what looks to be a very painful descent towards the ground once again.

This time, Damon reacts. His arms snap out and catch her around the waist, setting her back on her tiny feet with one arm wrapped around her.

"Okay, I was wrong. You're smashed," Damon says. "Let me drive you home."

Bonnie holds a hand to her forehead, looking more weary and exhausted then ever. "All right. But no funny business."

"Right back at you, judgy."

* * *

Bonnie stumbles through the unlocked door of her home, her hand clawing at the siding of the wall before finding the light switch. They both wince as the bright light shines over the both of them, bathing them in it's florescent warmth.

Damon then tries to step over the threshold and rams right into an invisible barrier.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Bonnie chuckles, half amused at the irritated look on his face. "Because I'm not the anchor anymore, I'm actually alive and you can't come in."

Damon rolls his eyes at her tone. "Very funny, judgy."

"Ah, I enjoyed it too," Bonnie says.

Damon turns to go, glancing back at her for a brief moment. "Will you be okay from here?" he asks sincerely.

Bonnie nods. "Yeah, I think so."

"Okay then...um...good night."

He fully turns to go and Bonnie's voice stops him.

"Damon?"

Damon shifts around, his shoulders tensing ever so slightly before he brings his grey eyes to find her face in that light. And he sees the young woman that he had landed in the Other Dimension with. The young woman who had looked him right in the eyes without wanting to murder him. The young woman who had taken his hand without hesitation and held on so tightly.

"Would you like to come in?"

* * *

"You know, I think I am the only vampire in this town that has never seen the inside of your house."

Bonnie chuckles, accepting the mug of coffee he presses into her hand. She takes a small sip and lets out the tiniest moan of pleasure.

"Wow, this is good. What did you put in it?"

Damon comes around the side of the couch and sits down next to her, making sure there is a good measure of space in between their bodies. He has his own mug to which he promptly drops a good measure of scotch into it.

"A little trick my mother taught me a long time ago. Just a bit of cinnamon and vanilla."

"That explains it. It's a girly drink."

"OH, shut up and drink it."

Bonnie obeys with a smirk.

The two of them continue to sit in comfortable silence. Damon nurses his Irish coffee and glances around the living room. Except for Elena's house, he has never seen a home with so many photographs all around. He recognizes a few faces here and there but a majority are of a certain Bennett witch.

Like Bonnie reads his mind, she places her mug on the coffee table and leans forward a bit. "After Grams died, I pulled all of the photographs out of her house and brought them here. Half of these people I don't even know but Grams did. It - it helps me feel a little bit closer to her. And to my mother."

"I don't see any of your father."

"In the few times that he was home, he was always behind the camera. He hated being photographed."

"Sounds like my father," Damon says, leaning back against the cushions.

Bonnie glances to her right, catching his face in her peripheral vision.

He really is beautiful.

Features like someone who had just walked out of a classic film. Startling grey eyes that reminded her of two diamonds, inky black hair that stuck up all over his head.

Yes, Damon Salvatore was gorgeous but what about the inside? The inside was what really counted.

"What was your father like?" she asks softly, knowing that she is taking a risky chance here.

Damon's shoulders stiffen ever so slightly. Bonnie takes another sip of her coffee, preparing to jump into another subject but then:

"He was a very strict man," he says slowly. "He wanted me and Stefan to follow in his footsteps. To be head of his own companies." Damon swallows and takes a sip of his own coffee. "Stefan was eager to please him but me - I didn't want to do what he wanted me to do."

"What did you want to do?" Bonnie asks.

Damon lightly smacks his lips, setting his mug down onto the coffee table. He remains leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "I wanted to go into architecture."

Bonnie raises a brow. "Architecture? Really?"

Damon chuckles. "I think I got it from my mother," he says. "When we moved into our home here in Mystic Falls, she ripped the place apart and changed everything. She made it into a home."

Bonnie can't help but wince. She had never heard Damon nor Stefan talk about their mother.

"Can I ask - what was your mother's name?"

Damon finally turns to look at her. Bonnie peers into those eyes and sees everything that had to have been there when Damon Salvatore was a human. Emotions of love, peace, and just a little bit of hope.

"Antonia."

"Antonia," Bonnie repeats. "That's very pretty."

"Antonia Jacqueline Dolette Salvatore," Damon says, rolling the R's. "Very very Italian."

_And then ..._

"She defended me whenever Father got a stick stuck up his ass," Damon continues softly. "She was the only one that was ever able to control him and - and I believe he loved her very much."

Bonnie remains silent.

"She died when I was twenty-two, right before I was supposed to go away to fight for the South."

Her voice is a crackle as she asks: "What happened?"

"Consumption. Today you'd call it tuberculosis," Damon murmurs. "She had always been fragile and when she carried Stefan, it weakened her greatly. For most of his life, she remained in her room. I tried to be with her as often as I could but Father was pressuring me to do these things I didn't want to do. And when I went against him -"

Bonnie doesn't need to hear any more.

"Things were never that bad with Stefan because he wanted to please Father. And when Father was pleased, he was a downright prince. Stefan was lucky. He never had to go through it. And he bought my stories about getting those black eyes from falling down or walking into a door."

"He did?"

"Well, at first. Later on he figured out what was going on."

"Is that why?" Bonnie can't really help herself. "I mean, was that beginning of it all? Before Katherine?"

Damon nods, glancing up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Yeah. Something like that."

She can tell that he is expecting her to start defending Stefan but she doesn't say a word. She does do something that surprises both of them.

She takes his hand.

Yes, they had held hands when they had landed on the dissolving Other Side together. They had held right on and even woke up after the explosion still holding hands.

This was different.

This was comfort.

Friendship.

Loyalty.

"Bonnie?"

"Hmm?"

The next words that leave Damon Salvatore's mouth nearly knock her out.

"I'm sorry. About everything."

And the reason why they nearly knock her out is because she believes him.

She won't forgive him. And she doubts she ever will.

_But - _

But she can let go. She can move on. She can take a page out of the Stefan Salvatore handbook and learn how to be the better person by finding good in others.

Bonnie squeezes Damon's hand tightly, linking their fingers together. She can tell that he understands just by that simple gesture. That he will never be off the hook but she won't be lording the past over his head for the rest of their lives. Of course, if he screws up like that again -

Now, that's another story.

But their story begins now.

His mouth on hers is surprisingly soft. She's not sure who actually initiated the kiss, not that either of them really care.

And then she's pushing him back against the cushions, moving so she's practically sitting in his lap. He continues to press his lips down her throat and right to her clavicle, his kisses warm and gentle. She cards her fingers through his hair and neither of them do a thing to stop this.

Not a damn thing.

* * *

Okay, that's it. Dawn's early light hurts like a bitch.

Especially when you have a hangover.

Bonnie lets out a small groan, feeling the sun burning right through her eyelids. She pushes up slightly and finds her hand meeting solid flesh.

Aw crap.

Her eyes fly open and she realizes that she's laying in the very comfortable embrace of a still sleeping Damon Salvatore.

And they're both naked.

Well, they do have the couch comforter over them but still -

She's naked with Damon Salvatore.

The whole night comes crashing back with a loud bang and Bonnie pulls herself out of Damon's arms, stealing the comforter to wrap around her form.

"Wazzagoin?"

Damon's awake now. Bonnie doesn't want to look at him for fear that she will turn bright red. She doesn't have to do her walk of shame. She's better than that.

"Good morning, sunshine," she says, rising up off the couch. Her eyes peel around for her clothes. Anything to do so she doesn't have to look at him.

She spots her shirt, in tatters, hanging from the ceiling fan. How the hell -?

Oh, never mind.

"Bonnie -"

"No, don't say it," Bonnie whirls around to face him and oh, thank god, he's got his pants on. "We don't even have to talk about it."

"Maybe we should," Damon says almost dejectedly. He picks his shirt up off the floor and pulls it on over his head. "It was bound to happen."

Huh?

"What do you mean, it was bound to happen?" Bonnie snaps, her voice a little harsher than she intends.

Damon shrugs a shoulder, trying to look nonchalant about the whole thing. Bonnie doesn't know how he can do it. Especially with the fact that he had just cheated on Elena, the girl who he had been madly in love with since the beginning of time.

She and Elena had drifted apart in the last months since she and Damon had come back. Elena had spent most of her time with Damon while Bonnie found herself with Jeremy and also Caroline and Stefan. Even Caroline, who had found out about Elena badmouthing her that one time, had pulled away.

Honestly, Bonnie was done. She would keep Elena as an acquaintance but that was about it.

Damon grabbed his boots which one had somehow ended up in the empty fireplace while the other one was laying on it's side on the mantle. He sits down on the edge of the sofa and proceeds to yank them on, his shoulders hunched up with tension. Bonnie knows she is the cause of that tension.

"Damon -"

Damon holds up a hand, silencing her.

"No, Bon, it's okay. I can tell you think this was a huge mistake," he says, standing back up.

"And you don't?"

"No, as a matter of act. I don't."

And he's gone within the blink of an eye.

* * *

Three weeks later ...

The smell of Stefan's cooking is so delicious. Spaghetti and meatballs, with the sauce made from scratch. She swears, she will gobble up every bite -

Oh, God, she's gonna hurl.

"Bonnie?"

Caroline's voice is a distant memory as Bonnie runs for the bathroom for the fifth time today.

After vomiting up whatever the hell is left in her stomach, Bonnie sinks down to the cool tiled floor, her forehead resting against the side of the bathtub.

A soft knock comes at the door.

"Bonnie? Bonnie, are you okay?"

She tries to answer Caroline and her voice comes out in a hoarse grunt.

The door softly slides open and Caroline steps through, sinking down to her knees beside her downed friend.

"Honey, what the hell is going on?" Caroline says as she reaches over to pull a washcloth from the rack in the bathtub. "Do you think you've got that flu that's going around?"

"That's probably it," Bonnie says, accepting the wet and cool cloth that Caroline presses to her forehead. "But for over a week? You would think that I would have gotten rid of it by now."

"You would think," Caroline agrees, glancing to her right. Her eyes suddenly widen and she looks back at Bonnie with such a wild stare that Bonnie thinks she has grown a pair of antlers or something. "Uh, Bonnie?"

"Yes, Caroline?" Bonnie says, closing her own eyes.

"When was the last time you and Jeremy had sex?"

"Calling Dr. Random," Bonnie sighs. "You know we broke up when he left for college."

Jeremy had graduated from high school early, having pulled a stunning one-eighty with his grades. The two of them had finally called it quits early last month, not long after her little escapade with Damon. Her little escapade that she had told no one about.

Oddly enough, she had thought she would hate this break up, that she would sink into a deep depression or something and just be a plain old bitch.

But she didn't. She actually felt pretty damn good.

It was better this way. It was right.

"Just answer the question," Caroline says.

"I don't know. About four months ago. After Damon and I got back, we weren't really bosom buddies anymore."

Caroline sighs, her eyes almost disappointed.

"Why do you ask?" Bonnie asks.

"You are nauseated all the time, right?"

Bonnie nods.

"Sore boobs?"

Come to think of it, she did have sore boobs.

"You've been tired and you've actually put on a few pounds."

That gets her.

"Excuse me?" Bonnie snaps. "Caroline, what the hell is your point?"

"Well, I thought perhaps you were pregnant."

Okay, that does it.

"Me? Pregnant? Are you out of your mind?" Bonnie snaps. "That is ridiculous. Besides, that would be a pretty neat trick."

"Okay, okay, don't bite my head off. It was just a thought." Caroline gets to her feet, gently pulling Bonnie up with her. "Are you feeling all right now?"

Bonnie nods. "Yeah."

"Do you think you can eat a little something?"

"Probably. Go back to Stefan, Caroline. I just want a minute alone," Bonnie gently pushes her out the door. "I just want to splash some water on my face."

She can tell that Caroline doesn't believe her but she goes. Bonnie waits until Caroline's footsteps disappear from the stairs before she lets out a breath.

Oh, god, oh, god.

Ohgodohgodohgod.

Could it be possible?

Nah.

Stranger things have happened.

Getting pregnant by a vampire, well -

Yes, that was strange.

And it was impossible.

* * *

She goes to the doctor the next day.

There is a family planning clinic right outside of town and they accept walk ins. Bonnie goes in there and waits for about twenty minutes before the doctor comes to get her and brings her into an examining room. While there, the doctor gives her a physical and takes a little bit of blood out of her arm, promising results within the hour.

So Bonnie waits some more.

She ignores constant calls and texts from Caroline, a few from Stefan and Matt and a phone call from Jeremy. Yes, they had broken up but they were still friendly.

And then one from Damon flashes over the screen.

_We need to talk. _

"Miss McCullough?"

Thank god no one knew who she was here and thank god for anonymity.

Bonnie's head raises and she finds the nurse gazing down at her.

"The doctor will see you now."

* * *

"You're pregnant, Miss McCullough."

Oh God.

Bonnie's voice comes out in a whisper.

"How far along am I?"

The doctor glances down at her paperwork. "I would say about three weeks to a month."

Bonnie barely listens as the doctor continues on in her chatter about getting to the obstetrician and having her first ultrasound done, to make sure that everything was okay with her and the baby. She nods her thanks as the doctor presses some prenatal vitamins into her hands and a referral for the other doctor and sends her out the door.

As Bonnie staggers to her car, her breathing comes in large gasps. She swallows, gulping air in by the bucketful, struggling to get control.

Oh god.

Oh, god she's pregnant.

With Damon Salvatore's baby.

**.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**Ah, such a feat is impossible since a vampire is technically dead BUT why the hell not? This is fanfiction, we can do whatever the hell we want. **

**I took some liberties here with the Salvatore mother. I know that it was said that she died when Stefan was very young but I wanted to stretch it out a little more. Damon didn't really turn into a raging jackass until after their mother had died so it would make sense that maybe she had passed before he went off to war. Expect her name, Antonia, to play a part later on. **

**Damon shall find out next chapter. **

**Reviews? Thoughts? Please? **


	2. the truth

_**the truth**_

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

'cuz you are the piece of me  
i wish i didn't need  
chasing relentlessly, still fight  
and i don't know why  
if our love is tragedy  
why are you my remedy?  
if our love's insanity  
why are you my clarity?'

**-'clarity', zedd**

**.**

**.**

**.**

Weeks went by and she told no one.

She watched Damon from afar, trying to get up the nerve to just pull him aside and tell him. He had a right to know, she knew that.

How in the living hell was she supposed to tell a vampire, one who had just returned from the dead with her, that he was going to be a father?

Maybe she'd write it on a cake and have that cake delivered to his house?

Nah, Elena could wind up seeing it first.

Singing telegram?

Oh God...

Skywriting?

Send her to the insane asylum right now.

* * *

"What's on your mind, lass?"

She was still trying to figure out how in the living hell Enzo got a job at the Grille. Compulsion had to be involved. Just had to be. He was one of the most untrustworthy men she had ever met.

But his face, that face and that voice who had pretty much spilled his guts to her during those hellish few weeks, that face was almost comforting. Because he got it. He understood what it was like to be stuck somewhere where no one could see you or hear you. To watch the people that you care about move about their daily lives and you can't be a part of it.

"The world, pretty much," she responds to that accented voice. Her green eyes dart up to meet his dark ones and they share the tiniest of smiles. "Why do you ask?"

"Because that is fifth ginger ale you have knocked back in the last twenty minutes," Enzo says as he wipes down a series of glasses that are lined up in front of him on the counter.

Bonnie peers down at her drink and sighs. Normally she would have requested something a little bit harder but alas, no booze for another seven months.

Oh god, she just had a horrible thought. Suppose this baby was like Renesmee Cullen and it grew extremely fast while she was carrying her? Suppose the baby winds up breaking her bones? Suppose -

"Bonnie!"

Bonnie comes out of it with a jolt, glaring up at Enzo's amused face with a scowl.

"What?!"

"You need to tell Damon."

Tell Damon? _Tell Damon?!  
_

"Tell Damon what?" Her voice comes out in a squeak that sounds like a dying mouse. She's so pathetic.

Enzo just smiles at her. "Tell him about that little life that is growing in your belly," he says with an unusual gentleness that was normally reserved for Caroline.

Instinctively, Bonnie's hand circles her belly protectively.

"H-How did you kn-know?" Really? She had to sound like a moron now?

"I can hear her little heart beating right alongside yours," Enzo says as he lets the last now clean glass go back to rest on the counter.

Bonnie glances over her shoulder and realizes they are alone in the Grille. Oh, thank God.

Wait a minute - _her? _

"And Damon showed up at my apartment right after he did his walk of shame. I could smell you all over him."

"He showered at your place?" Bonnie says softly. That explains why Elena didn't come rip her face off the morning after.

Enzo nods. He leans forward, his handsome face serene and those midnight eyes filled with a peace that Bonnie couldn't remember feeling herself in quite awhile.

"Stranger things have happened, little lass," he says softly. "But you need to tell Damon. He does have a right to know."

* * *

Enzo was right.

Oh, God, Enzo, the murderous vampire who had been her ghostly shadow for weeks, was giving her advice. Advice about Damon!

Ugh, what the hell has her life gone too?

Bonnie walks slowly up the front walk to the Boarding house. She can see Stefan's car in the driveway, parked right next to Damon's.

Her hand reaches up, locked in a fist preparing to knock on the heavy wooden door.

And the door flies open, revealing Caroline.

"Hey!" Caroline chirps happily. "I was just about to call you!"

"Really?" Bonnie says, trying to keep her voice as casual as she can and failing miserably. "Why?"

Caroline grabs her arm, pulling her none too gently over the threshold. "Because, I wanted us to try to get back to normal by having a game night!"

When Bonnie hit's the living room floor, she sees everyone gathered there. Elena, Damon, Stefan, Matt, and Tyler. None of them look too happy or even vaguely interested in being there.

Bonnie knows that Caroline is just trying to help. Just trying to get things back to the way they were.

But since when did a group full of vampires, witches, werewolves, and one lone human ever sit around and play board games?

She catches Stefan's eye when Caroline's back is turned and he just rolls his eyes with the slight twinkle of a smile.

Man, he must really love her.

Within minutes, Caroline has a game of Pictionary organized. Bonnie finds herself seated on the sofa, wedged in between Damon and Matt. Elena is seated on the other side of Damon, her hand clasped around his almost possessively.

Bonnie can't help but eye those joined hands out of the corner of her eye. She notices something peculiar though.

Damon isn't holding Elena's hand. His hand hangs slack in her grip.

Oh, God, why the hell does she care about all of this?

"Bonnie, it's your turn."

Elena's gentle voice pulls her out of her stupor and Bonnie is suddenly on her feet like someone had shocked her.

Anything, absolutely anything to get away from Damon.

Caroline hands her the hat full of tiny pieces of paper bearing clues to which she plunges her hand into. Her finger close around one at the very bottom, yanking it out and unfolding it none too gently.

Two words glare back at her almost like they are openly mocking her.

_Rosemary's Baby. _

Seriously? Was the universe really against her that much?

"Bonnie? You okay?"

She can hear Enzo's voice in her head, telling her that she needs to tell Damon. She needs to tell Damon.

She needs to tell Damon right now.

"Um...I can't do this," she whispers, placing the slip of paper back into the hat.

"What's the matter?" Caroline asks, rising to her feet.

Bonnie's eyes swivel around the room, all those upturned faces watching her like she is the bearded lady at some circus.

"Damon, can I talk to you? In private?"

* * *

She can feel his presence behind her as they walk. She walks a pace ahead, one hand resting on her stomach. Damon stays back just a bit, giving her the space that she needs and she is grateful.

They keep walking until they reach the outskirts of the property, well out of the vampire hearing range.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Damon asks her once she stops, her back still to him. "Why you're acting all Linda Blair-ish?"

"I need to tell you something," Bonnie says softly. Her eyes gaze out to the rolling green hills.

"What, your undying love?" Damon smirks as Bonnie finally turns around. She catches that soft gaze that was so unusual on his own face and she almost chickens out.

"Damon -"

"Bonnie, I'm sorry that I was avoiding you since that night. You were right. It was a mistake and I -"

He's freaking babbling like a nervous twelve year old! What the hell -?

"Damon -"

"I do care about what we have managed to put together. You're not frying my brain every other minute and -"

"Damon, I will fry your brain if you don't shut up!"

He shuts up.

And Bonnie just says it.

"I'm pregnant."

Damon gets that wild bug-eyed look on his face for just a few seconds before he pulls himself together and slaps that familiar half smirk back on.

"Well congratulations, little witch. Have you told Boy Wonder yet?"

"It's not Jeremy's."

Damon raises a brow. "Boy Wonder number two?"

"It's not Matt's!" Her voice is becoming slightly shrill.

"Then what hot hook up did you have, judgy? Who's baby mama are you?"

"Yours."

Is it possible for vampires to go into shock?

Bonnie waves a hand in front of Damon's glassy eyes, snapping her fingers.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

Now she's starting to get worried. It's like Damon had turned into a statue.

She presses a fingertip into Statue-Damon's shoulder. "Hey!"

Still nothing.

"Okay. Sorry about this."

Power buzzes in the air and Damon is suddenly clutching at his forehead, wincing as the tiny aneurism thuds away.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"I'm sorry," Bonnie says sincerely. "You had checked out. Are you okay?"

"I'll tell you when I can see straight again," Damon says with a grunt. He glances over the top of Bonnie's head for a moment before she reaches out and catches his chin in her fingertips. He delicately pushes her hand away. "Are you sure? Vampires can't -"

"- procreate, I know." Bonnie says. "I'm going on a month and a half along and - it's yours. You are the only option. All right, that didn't sound right but you know what I mean. Stranger things have happened, Damon. So why not a witchy-vampire baby?"

"You seem to be okay with this," Damon says.

"Granted, it took me awhile to get used to it," Bonnie replies. She pauses for a moment. "Damon, I don't want anything from you. I am perfectly okay with raising her on my own. I just -"

"Just what?" Damon asks.

"I just thought you had a right to know."

And with that, Bonnie gently pushes past the vampire and begins walking back to the house. But once she gets there, she gets into her Prius. There is absolutely no way she can face everyone inside. Especially with the off chance that one of them overheard her.

When Bonnie gets into her car, she glances in her rearview mirror. Damon is still standing where she left him, watching her with a look on his face that she can't quite read.

She's not going to do this.

Damon's going to have to come to her if he wants to be involved.

Yeah, she's being selfish, but you know what? It's about time.

* * *

"You must be out of your mind?!"

"Yes I am."

Matt stops, staring at her for a moment before turning on his heel and stomping across the room.

Caroline sighs from her perch beside the dresser. "So I was right."

Matt turns to glare the blonde's way. "You knew about this?!" His normally deep voice is rapidly approaching some height that only dogs could hear.

"I didn't know that she slept with Damon but I had a sense that something was up. I even asked her if she was pregnant and she denied it."

"Bonnie must be out of her mind to have slept with him," Matt says. He runs a hand through his unruly tresses, looking just like her own father during those few times that he would reprimand her for something.

"Well _Bonnie _is a grown woman," Bonnie cuts in, stepping in between Matt and Caroline. "And yes, she fucked up but she would also appreciate that you two stop talking about her like she isn't even here."

Matt sighs. "Sorry, Bon."

"Me too," Caroline says, getting to her feet. She takes Bonnie's hands in her own. "Have you figured out what you are going to do?"

"You mean, am I going to keep the baby?" Bonnie asks. When Matt and Caroline both nod, she smiles. "Yes."

Matt and Caroline exchange another uneasy look that just downright pisses Bonnie off.

"What? What's that look for?"

"Damon?" Caroline says. "I'm sorry but he is just not father material. Hell, he's barely even human being material."

Bonnie can't help the little flare of irritation at Caroline's words, even though she is absolutely right. She and Damon had bonded while being stuck in the other world together and most of that had come from the need to keep each other safe. She had learned to count on him and he her.

But she never forgot the things he had done before then. She never would.

"It's Damon's choice now," Bonnie says softly. She squeezes Caroline's hand and then releases it, stepping back to sit on her bed. Her own hand flops on her belly and then she feels it.

It's almost like a rush of butterflies in her stomach. That cute fluttery feeling that she used to get whenever she had a crush or a new love.

This feeling though, this feeling is a life.

A little innocent life that she had helped create.

Her baby.

"Bonnie? You all right?"

She barely hears Matt's voice, somehow managing an answer.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm good."

* * *

Another week goes by and she doesn't hear a word from Damon.

Stefan shows up at her house and congratulates her almost like he is a Jehovah's witness coming to share his faith. He stands awkwardly on her front step, reminding her of a baby giraffe that isn't really used to his long legs yet. He doesn't relax until Bonnie yanks him into her home and pours hot coffee into him.

She can't help but wonder if Damon had told Elena yet. It seemed like everyone knew now except her. Or maybe he had told her and then she killed him. Yeah, that could be it. Definitely explains why she hadn't heard from him in a week.

She schedules her first ultrasound for that Friday. When she pulls up to the doctor's office, a very familiar and very restored blue Camaro is parked in front of the doors.

Bonnie gets out of her car, slowly walking towards the electric doors while keeping one eye on that Camaro. Could be someone else's car. Definitely could be someone else's car.

No such luck.

A long legged, raven haired vampire steps out of the car, lightly shutting the door after him before veering around to face her.

She stops, staring. For a brief moment, she feels like she has just walked into one of those Nicholas Sparks chick flick films.

"How did you know?" she asks.

"Caroline texted me. She told me that if I didn't get my act together, she would rip off my head and use it for batting practice."

Bonnie chuckles lightly. That sounds like Caroline.

"You don't have to do this, you know."

Damon nods. "I know."

"What about Elena?"

For the first time in a long time, Bonnie feels distaste at the sound of the name on her own lips. Almost like -

Damon shrugs a shoulder. "She still doesn't know. For a vampire, she is quite clueless."

"Or you're just a good liar," Bonnie cuts across.

Damon shoves his hands deep into the pockets of his leather jacket, shuffling his boot clad feet underneath him before those diamond eyes meet hers.

"I'd really like to be here, Bonnie," he murmurs. "Please."

And for the second time ever, Bonnie Bennett finds she can't say no to him.

* * *

"Bonnie Bennett?"

The receptionist's voice brings Bonnie back to the real world. She looks up from her phone to see the receptionist gazing at her from behind her desk.

"Yeah?"

"The doctor will see you now."

Bonnie nods and slowly rises to her feet. It takes her a brief moment to realize that Damon isn't following her. She glances over her shoulder to see Damon still in his very uncomfortable plastic chair, twiddling his thumbs.

"Would you like to come with me?" she asks.

Their eyes lock for a brief moment and he rises to his feet, following her to the exam room.

They arrive within a matter of moments, the nurse already waiting for them.

"Hello, Ms. Bennett," the nurse greets her with a smile. She hands her one of those horrible thin nightgowns that she had to wear once when she was in the hospital overnight for surgery on her ankle. "I'll let you get into this and then I'll be back to get your vitals." She looks over at Damon. "Are you the husband?"

Bonnie almost chokes.

"Uh, no. He's Damon."

Damon rolls his eyes. "And the father."

The nurse begins to look increasingly uncomfortable and quickly excuses herself.

Once she is gone, Bonnie walks over to the privacy screens that are bunched in the corner of the tiny room.

"Oh, come on, Bonnie," Damon says with his familiar and annoying lilt. "I've seen you naked."

"And I'd rather you didn't see me naked again," Bonnie responds with her own eye roll. She pulls the screens around her. "Now turn your back and stare at the wall."

Damon grumbles but obeys, shifting around on his heel and crossing his arms in front of his chest. Bonnie waits for a small moment before quickly undressing and pulling that stupid gown on over her small body. She glances down at her stomach and smiles, unable to hide her tiny laugh.

She's got a baby bump. Kind of.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," Bonnie says. "Nothing at all."

* * *

After another agonizing ten minutes with the nurse checking every single vital of hers and constantly telling a fidgety Damon to settle down and stop pacing, they are alone once again, waiting for the doctor.

"When is Doc going to get here?" Damon moans.

"Hey, Damon, I didn't ask for you to be here," Bonnie reminds him. "So either you stop whining and pacing or you can go wait in the waiting room."

Damon doesn't argue back, flopping his long body down onto the metal stool that the doctor usually occupies, kicking his feet up to rest on the long examining table by Bonnie's side. She groans and shoves his booted feet off.

That's when the doctor chooses to walk in.

Damon quickly bolts from the stool and takes his place beside Bonnie, almost looking like he is trying to pretend he is part of the woodwork behind them.

"Hi, Bonnie," the doctor greets her. "I'm Dr. Reller."

"Hello," Bonnie says.

Dr. Reller turns to Damon, holding out a hand. "Are you the father?" she asks.

Damon takes her hand and shakes it. "Why, yes I am."

"Nice to meet you," she says warmly before turning back to Bonnie and glancing at her charts. "Okay, so everything looks good with you. Heart rate and blood pressure are lovely. How about we get a look at that baby?"

Bonnie nods, feeling her heart starting to hammer in her chest.

"All right."

Within minutes, she is hooked up to the oddest machine she has ever seen and a sheet is spread over her legs. Her nightgown is pulled up just slightly to reveal her stomach and that's when Damon sees it. Her baby bump.

Their eyes lock for just a second and she can see it. She can see all of it in those diamond eyes.

Bonnie starts when freezing cold goo is slopped onto her stomach. The doctor smiles her apology as she places the wand on her stomach, gently pressing down hard enough to get a reading to show up on the screen.

And then…

Oh, God, _and then—_

The heartbeat is probably the most beautiful thing she has ever heard in her whole entire life.

"There is your baby," Dr. Reller says, pointing with a manicured finger to the screen.

Bonnie peers closer, seeing the small shape that mildly reminds her of a peanut, shifting and wriggling on the television screen.

"Oh, my god…"

Dr. Reller grins, hitting a button on the screen so the image is captured.

"The baby seems to be perfectly healthy. You are just approaching your tenth week, correct?"

Bonnie nods, not really hearing the words.

"I'll give you two a minute."

And then she's gone, almost like the wind carried her away.

Hot tears burn behind Bonnie's eyes. She reaches up and brushing an escaping one away, shifting in her seat towards Damon.

For just a moment, she is afraid. She has never seen Damon like this before. So –

So – _human. _

He gazes at the screen, neither of them actually noticing that he's got her hand held between both of his.

"That's –" Damon swallows. "That's our baby."

Bonnie smiles. "That's our baby."

Damon tightens his grip on her hand and she laces their fingers together.

"Wow."

**.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**I can't help it. AWWWW!**

**Elena shall find out next chapter and then buh-bye 'Lena! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. **

**Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, my babies. How about some more? **

**Thanks guys. Have a great and safe weekend. **


	3. a visitor

_**a visitor**_

* * *

**a/n: Warning, this chapter is very anti-Elena. If you have a problem with that, then by all means, you do not have to read. I will understand. For those of you who are anti-Elena, please read on. **

**.**

**.**

'a time to live, a time to love  
a new day, a new age, a new face, a new lay,  
a new love, a new drug, a new me, a new you  
bright lights, big city  
she dreams of love.  
bright lights, big city  
he lives to run

**-'bright lights', thirty seconds to mars**

**.**

**.**

She had to tell Elena. She had to tell her. Damon sure wasn't doing it.

For another four days after having her first ultrasound, Bonnie kept trying to get up the nerve to go over to the boarding house. She thanked heaven that they were on summer break from school so she didn't have to be in close quarters with Elena and Caroline. She was pretty sure that Elena would eventually pick up on the extra heartbeat thumping alongside hers that way.

She missed her friendship with Elena. She missed what they used to have. But in the last months, especially since coming back from the dead with Damon right by her side, something had changed.

Bonnie hated to admit it but Damon was her friend. After going through what they had gone through together, they couldn't help but forge a bond.

And that bond resulted in this tiny little life that was now growing inside of her belly.

"Okay. Okay, I am going to do this. I am going to go over there and tell her the truth."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Who the hell is that?" Bonnie wonders aloud as she pulls herself off of the sofa. Her hand finds the remote and hit's the off button for the television and she pads across the hardwood floor to the front door.

Just as her hand hit's the doorknob, something tells her to check and see who it is.

She lifts up the side curtain of the window, peeking through.

Elena.

"Aw crap."

Bonnie opens the door. "Hey, Elena. What brings you here?"

"Maybe I should ask you that question," Elena says.

Bonnie cannot help the shiver that goes down her spine at Elena's tone.

This woman, this person, was not her friend anymore. She didn't know who this person was.

"Elena, come in," Bonnie says softly, bowing her head.

Elena storms past her into the house almost like she owns the place. Just as Bonnie closes the door, she whirls around with the most hurt look on her face. Bonnie can feel herself melting at that look but forces herself to hold her ground.

"Damon told you," she states.

"He told me," Elena says, her voice crackling. "He told me that he found you drunk at a bar and took you home. And then one thing led to another and - and that you two had sex."

Bonnie nods. "Yes we did."

"How did I not -?" Elena begins. "How did I not pick up on this immediately? I don't understand."

"Damon hid it well," Bonnie says with a thoughtful nod. "You shouldn't blame yourself."

"No, I do. This is my fault. And if -"

"And if what?" Bonnie cuts across.

"Maybe if you had let me die with him on the Other Side, maybe none of this would ever have happened."

Elena's voice ends with a sob that sounds quite forced.

_Okay...what the hell is going on?_

Bonnie gazes at Elena with her arms crossed in front of her stomach.

"Elena, why are you here?" Bonnie asks.

Elena turns her way, those perfect brown eyes glazed over with tears. She reaches out a hand towards her that Bonnie doesn't take.

"I just wanted to tell you that I forgive you," she says with a warmth that gets under Bonnie's skin. "I know that it wasn't your fault."

"What? That I slept with Damon?" Bonnie says, her voice rising.

That's it.

She's had enough.

"You seem to forget that there were two people involved, Elena," Bonnie snaps. "Damon and me. And you only confront me? Did you even get mad at Damon or did you just shrug your shoulders and say 'no matter'?"

Bonnie doesn't really know what's come over her but damn, does this feel good!

"He is not an angel, Elena. In fact, he is a raging pinhead who needs to have his ass kicked every once in a while!"

"If you hate him so much then why the hell did you sleep with him?!" Elena demands.

"I don't know!"

Those three words fly out of Bonnie's mouth quicker than she can control them.

And what scares her those most is that - well, they are the truth.

She really doesn't know why she slept with Damon.

The old Bonnie never would have. The Bonnie that she was before ending up in the other world with him, that Bonnie never would have ever allowed him to lay a finger on her. The Bonnie she is now, the Bonnie that has literally gone through hell and back - well, this Bonnie is different.

That terrifies her even more.

Bonnie says the words slowly, almost like they are causing her great individual pain.

"I just don't know."

And suddenly, it's so quiet that they can hear the birds chirping. The two girls stand there staring at each other, trying to figure each other out. Trying to figure out what they had lost.

Elena's face twists slightly, almost like she is concentrating on something that Bonnie can't see.

"Oh, my God."

"What?" Bonnie asks, already dreading the answer.

Elena points a trembling hand to Bonnie's slightly protruding stomach, the other going up to cover her mouth.

"You're - y-you're - I hear another heartbeat."

Ah, damn. So Damon left that little part out.

She's going to stand her ground. She's not going to whimper and bow down.

"Elena, listen to me," Bonnie begins slowly. She gestures to the couch. "Let's sit down and talk about this."

"Talk?!" Elena's voice is bordering on the hysterical. "Talk?! You expect me to talk about this?! You're pregnant with Damon's baby, with _my _boyfriend's baby and you want me to talk about it!"

"That's enough."

Both girls jump slightly.

Caroline stands at the open doorway, one hand still on the knob. Her normally happy face is hard and unforgiving.

"Caroline, this isn't any of your business!" Elena throws at her. "You need to butt the hell out!"

"No, Elena this is plenty of my business," Caroline cuts across. "Especially when you attack Bonnie. You need to leave."

"I will not leave!" Elena shouts. "She -"

"That 'she's' name is Bonnie," Caroline snaps. "Your friend, remember that?"

"She's not my friend."

That's it. That's the final straw.

Bonnie gently brushes past Caroline, keeping one hand back in the soccer mom position. She gazes up into Elena's face, into the face of someone she once loved very much and would have done anything for.

Not anymore.

"Okay, I've had enough of this," she begins, her own voice steady and calm. She feels Caroline step back and she lowers her arm. "For weeks, I have felt so guilty about this. Even though we kind of drifted apart, I still felt so horrible. I had betrayed you and your trust. But after I found out I was pregnant, I was even more afraid to tell you because I knew how much it would hurt you. _But _I held onto hope that maybe, just maybe, you could forgive me. Because I need you. I need my best friend. I am so scared, Elena. I really am. And now I stand here and listen to these words that you throw at me because of the mistake that I made, well -"

Sudden tears burn behind her eyes. She swallows and tries to push them back as best she can.

"I made a mistake, Elena," Bonnie says softly, her voice dropping into a whisper. "One that I hope you can forgive me for one day. But I am not going to sit here and take this. Not anymore."

Bonnie then turns and carefully brushes past Caroline and opens up the front door, standing with her hand tightly gripped around the knob.

"Goodbye Elena."

Without another word, Elena crudely pushes past her and walks through the open door. She stops for a brief moment, turning around on one heel to look back inside.

"Well?"

This is directed at Caroline.

"Well what?" Caroline says, her brows raised.

"Are you coming or staying?"

A small noise leaves Caroline's mouth, a noise that sounds suspiciously like a sob.

"I'm staying."

Elena leaves then, taking off in a blur of motion that not even Caroline's eyes can follow.

* * *

She cries for almost two hours.

Caroline holds her, lets her bawl and snot all over her shoulder, pours a mug of hot decaffeinated tea into her, and then tucks her into bed.

She doesn't sleep though. She lays there, listening to the sounds of Caroline puttering around in the kitchen, washing dishes and putting them away. At twenty minutes to midnight, she hears Caroline slowly and quietly creep out of the house, locking the door behind her.

It doesn't seem real. None of this seems real.

But it is. And that's the scary part of it.

After Caroline leaves, Bonnie rises from bed and pads downstairs to the living room. She heads back to her normal spot on the couch, grabbing the remote along the way and flopping down in the fetal position.

An hour into an infomercial on special hair dryers, she finds herself reaching for the phone to order one.

And then the doorbell rings.

Bonnie sits bolt upright. "Who the hell is that at two o'clock in the morning?"

"It's me."

The voice floats through the air, silky smooth.

Damon.

Bonnie pulls herself off of the couch and pads to the doorway. She peeks through the curtain on the window before warily opening the door.

For a second, she thinks she is in a movie because this moment is just so out of the ordinary.

Lightening flashes and wind tumbles, illuminating the gorgeous vampire that is standing on her porch.

Bonnie waits. She waits for the flash of teeth that are sure to come, heading for her throat because she insulted the precious Elena. She prepares herself to strike.

"Elena left me."

Oh.

Okay, there's nothing new there. Elena left Damon once a week.

"For good this time."

Bonnie swallows. "How do you know?"

"I just know," Damon says softly.

"Then what are you doing here?" Bonnie asks. "Why aren't you off somewhere wrecking havoc?"

She tries to ignore the flush of guilt when she sees that sliver of hurt in his eyes.

"Maybe I didn't want too for once."

Bonnie sighs softly and opens up the door wider.

"Come in, Damon."

He gazes at her for just the smallest of moments, almost like he has never seen anything quite like her before. And then he steps into the home.

They watch infomercials until four in the morning, without saying a single word to each other. Bonnie finds herself finally dropping off to sleep and then something quite peculiar happens.

As she curls onto her side, both arms wrapped protectively around her stomach, there is a sudden shifting beside her. She feels something warm being draped over her body and she realizes that it's a blanket. She cracks open one eye to watch Damon as he bends over the fireplace and begins building a fire. Once it flares up, he quickly steps back and lifts the protective screens around it.

Wow.

Bonnie knows that most of this has to be because of the baby but -

_But - _

That is her last thought as she slips off into a now peaceful dreamland.

* * *

It seems like the whole town had heard about Elena leaving. From the rumors that Bonnie later heard and the truth she later got out of Damon was that she had come home, angrily confronted Damon once again, packed up her bags and informed nearly everyone that she was heading out of state to visit Jeremy and probably wouldn't be back.

Bonnie was sad. She was very sad about this. She would miss Elena terribly but -

But it was time to say goodbye.

She watches as her belly grows and swells. She can feel actual movements instead of the rush of butterflies and the first time, she nearly falls over.

Enzo happens to be there.

She's eating lunch at the Grille and Enzo has just brought her her second helping of apple pie. Her doctor tells her that eating healthy is a good thing but for some reason, she just can't stop shoveling the junk food back.

Hmmm…

"Thanks, Enzo – whoa!"

Enzo stares at her in alarm and manages to catch the pie plate before it goes flying.

"What?"

Both of Bonnie's hands rest on her belly, her eyes wide with surprise and happy tears.

"The baby is kicking for the first time," she says with a big stupid grin. She reaches up and grabs Enzo's hand and places it on her belly. "Feel this."

Enzo almost pulls his hand back but then – then he feels it.

A gentle movement, almost like something was swimming underneath his hand. And then there is a sharp prod right to his palm.

"My goodness," he chuckles with a smile. "She is growing inside you."

Bonnie smiles up at her friend. "Do you really think it's going to be a girl?"

Enzo returns that smile. "I do. And I believe she is going to be just like you. Of course, she will inherit a bit of her father's devilish spirit."

"Just a bit," Bonnie says. "I don't think I can handle having a mini-Damon."

* * *

At that moment, Big Damon walks up to the entrance of the Grille. He hears his name and looks towards the voice. There, he sees Enzo on his knees in front of Bonnie, both of his hands on her protruding belly.

It takes Damon a brief moment before he realizes what exactly is happening.

Focusing his senses, he hears the movements of his and Bonnie's baby. He can hear her healthy heartbeat. He can almost hear the thumps of her happy kicks.

Jealousy flares through him as he continues to watch this intimate moment. He knows he is intruding but he doesn't give a damn.

That's supposed to be him. It's supposed to be him sitting there in front of Bonnie, sharing that smile, feeling their baby kick and wiggle underneath his fingers.

It's supposed to be him.

He then clears his throat, announcing his presence.

"Am I interrupting?"

Enzo jumps but Bonnie remains cool as a cucumber.

"The baby just kicked for the first time," Bonnie grins, pulling herself to her feet. She places a hand on her stomach. "Would you like to feel?"

Damon shakes his head. "No," he says, a little colder than he intends. "Enzo seems to have had that opportunity."

_Ouch. _Bonnie watches him for a moment before she reaches out and grabs his arm.

"Damon, hey –"

But Damon never finds out what Bonnie is about to say due to the whopping aneurism that suddenly settles in his brain. Both of his hands snap up to clutch at his forehead and within a second, he is on his knees crying out in agony.

Enzo mimics his movements, blood spurting from his nose and dribbling down his chin.

"_Bonnie –"  
_

Bonnie stares at the both of them for a moment, unable to really comprehend what is happening.

"It's not me!"

"No, it's me."

Bonnie looks towards the doorway of the Grille and sees a beautiful woman standing there, olive skin, dark brown hair hanging in wild curls down her back. She holds up one hand, a heavy ring resting on her middle finger.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bonnie starts. She begins to walk towards the woman but is suddenly pushed back by an invisible force that she can't penetrate. "Let them go!"

The woman lowers her hand and Damon and Enzo both gasp in relief. Bonnie steps around Damon's still downed body, both of her hands held up in a defensive motion.

"Who the hell are you?"

The woman turns slightly on her heel and holds up one hand. The door to the Grille swings shut and the lights go off. Only one in the whole restaurant stays on and that is the one hanging right over Bonnie's table.

She can hear Damon staggering to his feet behind her. Enzo is still groaning on the floor.

"My name is Claudette," the woman says finally. "I am a Gollum witch."

"A what?" Damon spits out, stepping in front of Bonnie.

But Bonnie knows.

Oh, God, she knows exactly what that is.

"A Black witch."

* * *

With the blinking 'Open' sign now off and the doors locked, the only occupants of the Grille are two vampires and one Dark witch, and one pregnant White witch. The one called 'Claudette' stands by the bar with a glass of brandy in her hand. She sips at it leisurely, allowing the tension to thicken in the air by the bucketful.

"Okay, lady. Are you going to tell us why you suddenly showed up here and fried our brains or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" Enzo snarls. He flashes next to Claudette with his fangs bared and within the blink of an eye, he is on the floor.

"Don't mess with me, Mr. Simmons," Claudette says with a snap. "You know I can rip you apart without lifting a finger."

Enzo laughs, pulling himself to his feet. "I don't know whether to be insanely turned on or insanely irritated."

"Enzo –" Bonnie holds up a hand. "Just stop."

Damon looks back and forth between Enzo and Bonnie for just the briefest of moments, annoyance flashing in his grey eyes. Enzo catches the look as he sits down, opening his mouth to question it but Claudette then speaks.

"As you already know, my name is Claudette. I am from a coven called the Gollums. We are a coven made up of witches and hybrids that practice Black magic."

"And what are you doing here?" Damon interrupts.

Claudette glowers at him but continues on.

"I had a vision a few weeks back. Of a child, an unborn child, that is destined to be great. Destined to be one of us and even more."

Damon rolls his eyes. "Again, what does that have to do with -?" And then it hits him. "Wait, are you talking about -?" He points to Bonnie's belly. Bonnie's hands suddenly snake around it. "You're out of your mind!"

Claudette shakes her head. "I'm sorry but I am not."

"If you think you are here to collect my daughter and take her to your coven, you are unfortunately mistaken," Bonnie says softly. Coldly.

"I am not here to take her," Claudette rebuffs. "I am here to warn you. I broke away from my coven, so I could journey here and find you. Find this child's parents so they can prepare themselves. There will be a war to fight."

"And why would they want her?" Bonnie asks.

"Because she is already so powerful," Claudette whispers. "And they will not just want her as a part of the coven. They will wish to possess her. To make her as evil as they come. You don't seem to understand who we are."

"You are crazy, that's what you are," Damon interrupts, getting to his feet. "And I don't believe a word of this."

"You have to believe me," Claudette snaps. "Because if you don't, then I cannot help you protect your daughter!"

That's when it rings true for Bonnie. Hearing those words come off of Claudette's lips, understanding the fact that she is going to have a daughter, that she is going to have a daughter that will be in danger the moment she is born –

She can't ignore that.

"Why would you want to help us?" Bonnie asks carefully. "Why are you even here?"

Claudette finally sits then, leaning down onto one of the stools with defeat. Her heavily manicured hands rest in her lap and she picks at one of her nails. Long lashes rest against her cheeks and heavy breaths leave her throat.

"Because…" she whispers. "Because I do not believe in what they live by. And because I don't believe that they should rip a child away from his or her parents just like that. I can never – I can never make a child go through what I had to go through."

That's all Bonnie needs to hear.

Her eyes meet Damon's across the table and he nods his consent.

It's their baby. Their daughter.

* * *

The Gollum coven is led by a warlock named Sean. His lieutenants are two witches named Sofia and Lisa. There are about ten other witches and warlocks that make up the whole coven, including Claudette.

Their minds are connected in ways that shouldn't even exist. When Claudette had the vision about Bonnie and Damon's daughter, Sean saw it too. For Claudette to escape, she had to perform a very dangerous spell to cloak herself and in the end, she can never go back.

If the Gollums were to take their baby, she would be raised with blood and darkness. When she made her first kill, she would have to drink the blood of her victim and through that, take the essence of his power. As she grew, she would make more kills. Become even more powerful than ever and soon, there would be no humanity left in her heart.

Bonnie Bennett wasn't about to let that happen.

Once Claudette has gone, Enzo makes himself scarce, leaving Damon and Bonnie alone. Bonnie rises slowly from her chair, turning to face Damon as he heads for the bar, pawing around below it to pull out a bottle of bourbon. He quickly dumps some in a glass, sloppily knocking it back.

"Damon –" Bonnie begins but he holds up a hand, cutting her off. "Damon!"

"No, Bonnie, don't even say it. I know what you want and that's for me to leave. I am only going to wind up getting you and her killed."

"No, dumbass, that is not what I was going to say," Bonnie growls. She stomps behind the bar and takes both of his hands in hers. She places one on her stomach and the other she continues to hold. "I was going to say, feel this."

After Claudette and Enzo had left, the baby had started dancing the rumba again. It was almost like she had sensed what was going on and just sat back and listened to the drama.

At the touch of her daddy's hands, Baby Girl Bennett-Salvatore begins to wriggle and kick again. Her little happy thumps against Damon's hands continue on, getting a little bit more prudent, almost like she is trying to convey a message to him.

_Don't screw this up, Dad. I'm counting on you. Mom's counting on you. _

Something changes then. Something that has more power than any kind of magic created by any kind of witch.

A joy settles in the normally dull eyes of Damon Salvatore. A wondering kind of love that is so incomprehensible, so pure that it makes Bonnie's heart hurt a little bit.

"Can you do this?" Bonnie murmurs. "Are you with me?"

Damon's fingers lace through hers and for that moment, they just hold on.

"Until the end."

**.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**Oh my god, the feels. Sorry about that. **

**Right now, it's just about Damon and Bonnie's daughter. It's about protecting their little girl and keeping her safe from the harm that is sure to come from Claudette's warning. But soon, it will be about their whole little family, including Stefan and Caroline. **

**I know she is pretty one-dimensional right now but expect Claudette to stick around. **

**Just so you know, Bonnie is her eighteenth week of pregnancy which is normally when the baby's movements become more pronounced. **


	4. a little life

_**a little life**_

* * *

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

'have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?  
lasso the moon and the stars  
and pull that rope tight  
it's only half past the point of no return  
the tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn  
the thunder before the lightning  
the breath before the phrase  
have you ever felt this way?'  
**-'glitter in the air', pink**

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

_There's nothing but darkness when Bonnie opens her eyes. _

_She can't see anything. She can't feel anything. There is absolutely nothing around her. _

_And then - "Where in the living _hell _are we?" _

_Oh yeah. Damon. _

_She'd forgotten about that little thing. _

_Still in the pitch black, she feels Damon capture her hand and pull her to her feet. _

"_That is a very good question," Bonnie responds, never letting go of his fingers. His hand, his fingers slipped through hers were her only link to what she used to know. To her old world that she had gotten so used to even though it drove her nuts. _He _drove her nuts. _

_But he was here. _

* * *

"She needs a name."

"Huh?"

"Our kid needs a name."

As Bonnie looks up from her grimoire that she had had her nose in, she sees Damon stalking the length of the room like a caged cat.

In the last weeks since that night, Damon had been showing up at her house unannounced, uninvited like a nosy neighbor that she just couldn't keep out. But then again, she wasn't too perturbed having him there now.

Bonnie is now in her twenty third week of pregnancy. Since that night of Claudette's warning, she had actually cast a protection spell around herself and around the others but she wasn't sure how well it work. Protection spells were normally for humans and she and Matt were the only humans about.

They had a little under three months left. Claudette's warning hadn't ended there - that Sean and the rest of his followers would arrive soon before the baby was due to be born. Claudette had headed for the hills soon after delivering the warning but Bonnie knew that they hadn't seen the last of her.

Coming back to the present, Bonnie considers Damon's words.

"You're right," she says.

"I am?" Damon looks flat out flabbergasted at Bonnie's instant agreement to his suggestion. That hardly ever happens. In fact, it never happens.

Bonnie chuckles softly at the expression on Damon's face. She holds out a hand and he pulls her to her feet. She pads softly to the bookcase across from the couch and leans down, pulling two books out of the shelves, tossing one to Damon to which he catches cleanly in one hand.

"'Old Baby Names'?" Damon says, reading the title. "This makes it sound like you're giving birth to a eighty year old."

Bonnie rolls her eyes, thumbing through her own book, just called 'Baby Names for the New Mommy'.

"This will make it easier," she says. "We can each come up with some nice names and narrow it down."

Damon gazes at her for a brief moment before flopping down on the couch, his boots up on the coffee table. Bonnie stands there, watching him for the tiniest of seconds, suddenly reminded of another night, not too long ago, where this gorgeous and cocky vampire had suddenly taken over her living room and soon her heart.

"Are you going to sit down or stand there like a floor lamp?" Damon says, suddenly realizing that she hasn't relaxed yet.

"Oh! Oh, yeah."

Bonnie waddles over and sits down on the far side of the couch, slowly lifting her sock feet up onto the cushions. Damon relaxes beside her, thumbing through his own book.

"Ew...Beauregard," he mutters after a minute.

"That's not too bad," Bonnie says.

"That's a name for a dog, not our child."

When the words leave his mouth, those two small words - _our child -_ it suddenly make sense to Bonnie.

This is their baby. Their daughter. Their child.

Bonnie cannot help the tiny smile that crosses her lips as she goes back to her book. They toss names back and forth for the next twenty minutes, Damon jotting down ones that weren't so bad on a piece of paper.

And then Bonnie found it.

"Alexandra," she whispers, letting the book fall from her fingers and onto the floor. "That's it."

Damon looks her way, twisting his head thoughtfully in such a way that she was reminded of a golden retriever.

"Alexandra," he repeats. "I like it. Alexandra Salvatore."

"Allie or Alex?" Bonnie says.

"I like Alex."

"But that makes her sound like a boy," Bonnie protests. "Allie is better. Much more feminine."

"I'm sorry, did you say feminine or feline?"

"Oh, shut up."

Damon laughs, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a quarter. "All right, we'll flip for it."

"Are you serious?" Bonnie gapes. "We're going to flip a coin over our daughter's name?"

"Her _nickname_," Damon says, lowering his voice. "It's not like we are flipping a coin over if we are going to raise her Catholic or Jewish."

"Hey, are we going to raise her Catholic?"

"Bonnie, just call it!"

The quarter goes up and twists in the air.

"Heads."

Damon catches the quarter and lets it flop down on the back of his head. He peeks under his palm.

"Tails."

Bonnie sighs. "Really?"

"No, I lied. It's heads."

Bonnie throws her book at Damon's head.

* * *

"Allie. Allie Salvatore. I like it," Caroline says. "What do you think, Stefan?"

The two have arrived at Bonnie's house for that spaghetti dinner that poor Bonnie never got to eat all those weeks ago. Finally over her morning sickness, Bonnie was stuffing her face like a cow and enjoying every minute of it.

Stefan nods, his eyes slightly glazed over. He holds his glass of wine to his lips for a moment before quickly replacing on the countertop.

"Give me a minute," he says before blurring out of the room.

"What's the matter with him?" Damon says, looking up from the large pot of spaghetti sauce he was currently stirring.

Caroline rises to her feet but Bonnie holds up a hand.

"Let me," she says. Caroline nods, glancing sideways at Damon's back before sliding back down to the stool she was perched upon.

Bonnie scoots off the stool, heaving her healthy and large belly along with her. She listens intently for Stefan's movements upstairs.

In the last weeks, things had changed for her. She was aware that vampire blood was now in her veins, helping bring life to her tiny daughter. She wasn't sure what exactly Allie was going to be, whether be some sort of hybrid or a witch with vampire blood in her system. But Bonnie could sense the changes. She could hear better. She could move a little quicker. Little things like that.

Coming up the stairs, Bonnie rounds a corner and runs right into a very broad chest. Of course, her large belly bounces off first and she nearly falls backwards. Stefan's hand snaps out and closes around her wrist, pulling her upright once again.

"You okay?"

Bonnie looks up into a pair of green eyes that are so unlike her own and nearly scoffs.

"I'm fine," she says softly. "I came to ask you that same question. What was with you leaving like that?"

Stefan sighs. "Sorry. I just - I had to get away for a minute. Away from all of that."

"All of what?" Bonnie asks. She can speculate what is about to come out of Stefan's mouth. "Caroline is just happy and excited. I can tell her to tone it down a little bit."

Stefan shifts backwards and ends up sliding down the wall and sitting on the hardwood floor. Bonnie eyes him, remaining standing.

"I'm sorry," Stefan says again. "I'm a little afraid."

"Of Claudette's warning?"

Stefan shakes his head. "Of you."

"Me?"

Stefan nods to her stomach. "Of that tiny creature inside of you. Of what I could end up doing to her if I am not careful."

Bonnie leans to her right so her back is against the wall. She allows her feet to go out from underneath her and she ends up on the floor next to Stefan.

"And what makes you think that you are going to hurt your niece? What happened to the shy guy who showed up at my door right after we found out she was on the way?"

"Bonnie -" Stefan begins slowly. "You never saw me as a Ripper. What I did."

Bonnie shakes her head. "No, I didn't," she says. "But I do know this." With that, she takes his hand in hers. "I know the guy who pulled me out of the tomb, who somehow knew that I was there and came and got me. I know the guy who bent over backwards to protect people that he didn't even know from others and even from himself. I know the guy who walked away from someone he once loved so she could be happy with his brother. And I know the guy that adores that bubbly blonde downstairs."

Stefan turns those large owlish eyes towards her.

"I know the Stefan Salvatore who is my friend. My dear friend."

Gingerly, tentatively, Stefan raises his hand. It hovers and shakes in mid air, moving slowly before coming to rest on her belly.

At the mere whisper of a touch, Allie starts kicking against her uncle's hand. In the past, Bonnie had slowly begun to figure out the sign language that was her daughter's kicks, when she was happy, when she was agitated, and when she was just plain old bored. These steady little thumps were happy and filled with an unknown love already.

Stefan's eyes swivel around to meet hers as he feels the pressure under his palm. A token of a smile creases the corners of his lips upward and he sighs.

"She's real," he murmurs.

"Of course she is. Did you think I made her up?" Bonnie asks, raising an eyebrow.

"No, that's not what I mean," Stefan explains. "I just - I never thought it could really be true, you know? And now -"

"Now that you have felt her, you know," Bonnie finishes.

"Yeah."

"Stefan..." Bonnie begins slowly. "It's okay to let yourself be happy. To move on."

Stefan gives her this look that would have melted the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge and right then, Bonnie finally understands just how young he really is. Yes, he is over a hundred and sixty years old but being turned at the mere age of seventeen, losing whatever life that was had just so suddenly - Bonnie understood that. She was finally starting to get it.

"And," Bonnie adds, leaning close. "I'm pretty sure Caroline wouldn't be too perturbed about adopting a baby later on down the road."

"Oh, shut up."

Their shared laughter is a sweetness that can never be matched.

* * *

Life should return to normal for a bit. It was supposed too.

And then something happened. Something that shook Bonnie to the core.

Enzo and Matt hadn't been getting along too well, working together at the Grille. Being the jackass that he is, Enzo compelled the manager for a promotion that Matt was supposed to get and well, to put it plainly, Matt hadn't reacted well.

And it got him killed.

Actually, temporarily killed.

Matt told her later that Enzo's exact words were "You hate vampires so much? You don't like how we get anything we want? How about you, you lonesome human boy, finally get a taste of it?"

And then he shoved blood down Matt's throat and snapped his neck.

Bonnie would remember finding Matt laying face down behind the bar at the Grille, the sound of his already newly beating heart almost pounding away in her ears, forever. She would never be able to get that image of her head.

The first person she called was Caroline and then Damon. Caroline had freaked for a moment but pulled herself together, the phone line clicking dead after a hurried promise to be there quickly. Damon hadn't even bothered to sound surprised, sharing his own promise to be there soon.

And Bonnie hunkered down to wait.

She hurriedly locked all the doors and windows to the Grille, pulling the shades down so no prying human eyes could see inside. She pulled off her jacket and balled it up, placing it underneath Matt's head in an attempt to make his return to un-living a little bit more comfortable. She also worked at cleaning up some of the mess that the obvious struggle between he and Enzo had made.

Bonnie then crawls down to the floor beside Matt's head, stroking his sweaty bangs off of his forehead. Her eyes trace the Gilbert ring on his fourth finger and she sighs.

"I guess we have found the one thing that it can't protect you from," she murmurs softly before taking that hand in hers.

A sudden knock at the door makes her jump slightly.

"Bonnie, it's me."

Caroline.

Bonnie pulls herself to her feet as best she can, waddling across the floor to the door. She peeks around the drawn shade to see Caroline and also Stefan waiting on the stoop. She hadn't so much as bothered to call Stefan after finding Matt, knowing that wherever Caroline was, he wouldn't be too far away.

"Get in," Bonnie whispers once the door is open. She goes to shut it after Caroline and Stefan cross the threshold and nearly rams it into Damon's nose. "Damon!"

Damon holds out his hands, his brows raised. "Hey, you called me."

"Well, a little warning next time before you make your entrance," Bonnie says, shutting the door and relocking it once Damon is inside.

"Where's Boy Wonder?" Damon asks.

Bonnie points wordlessly to the bar. Caroline blurs behind it and lets out a tiny wail.

"Oh, _Matt_._" _

"I tried to make him as comfortable as I could so when he wakes up -" Bonnie begins.

Stefan's gentle hand on her shoulder stops her.

"You did just fine, Bonnie."

Bonnie nods, starting a bit when she feels a nudge at her abdomen. Allie can sense the emotions in the air.

A abrupt gasp followed by a round of hacking coughs fills the air and Matt's awake.

* * *

"What about the ring?"

Bonnie knew that was going to be Matt's first question.

She holds out her hand for it and Matt gently plops it into her palm.

"The one thing that this little trinket cannot protect you from," she says. "I say, toss the lot."

"Oh, Bonnie."

Matt remembered every little thing about what had happened and more. He could already remember the brief time that Caroline had compelled him way back in the day.

It was happening.

"How come you're so calm about this?" Damon asks Matt. "I was kind of expecting you to scream and wail like a banshee."

"Very funny," Bonnie scolds him but Damon ignores her, still gazing at Matt, waiting for an answer.

"Because -" Matt sighs. "Because maybe I knew this was going to happen eventually. But not this way."

"Oh, I get it," Damon replies cruelly. "You wanted Barbie Klaus to do it."

"Damon, that's enough." That comes from Stefan now.

Damon falls silent.

Caroline shifts down to the floor beside Matt, pressing her bag into his hand.

"It's your decision but you're going to have to make it now," she says.

The painful reminders of her own transformation and Elena's still hung in the air.

Bonnie holds out her hand to Stefan who helps her get up from the floor. She gently touches Caroline's shoulder and she rises too. She turns back to Matt.

"Matt, you - Matt!"

The blood bag is already at Matt's lips.

The other vampires and the young pregnant witch stare. Matt catches the four-way intent look and sighs again.

"I made this decision a long time ago," he explains. "If it ever did happen -"

"You would turn," Caroline finishes. "Oh, _Matt_."

"Don't look at me like I'm some three legged puppy you found on the street," Matt says. "I've learned a lot. I'll be fine." But there's something else right on the edge of his tongue. Something he needs to say.

Those blue eyes look up at her, at Bonnie and he sighs.

"I just -"

"Just what, Matt?" Bonnie whispers.

"I don't want to die. Permanently, that is."

Because that ring will not bring a person back from transition. And they all know that.

Caroline nods, followed by Bonnie. Almost a consent.

And Matt drinks the blood.

Damon links a hand on Bonnie's shoulder, pulling her back out of the way. Bonnie pushes his hand away but soon gets it when she sees what happens.

Matt lets out a gag, spitting some of the blood out onto his chin and chest. The next sound he makes, the sound of pure agony, as his fangs split through his gums for the first time - oh, god.

He's on all fours, dry heaving. He spits onto the floor, a small growl leaving his lips. Caroline quickly moves behind him, placing a tentative hand on his back.

"Breathe, Matt," she says. "Breathe."

Matt obeys, taking in another choking gasp that makes Bonnie's heart hurt. But something's not right.

Bonnie feels the tiniest of nudges against her stomach and she knows.

Pushing past a protesting Damon, she walks over to Matt and lowers herself down onto her knees beside him. Matt holds up a hand, trying to push her away but she takes that hand.

"This shouldn't be like this," Bonnie says, taking that hand in hers. She twines their fingers together and closes her eyes.

Golden light begins to spread from her fingers and into Matt's hand. It shines bright, casting through his veins and up into his chest.

A breath slips from his lips, one even and solid. Followed by another.

The veins that had been protruding underneath his eyes recede and his eyes fade back to their beautiful baby blue. His fangs retract painlessly.

"Bonnie ..." Caroline breathes from above the two of them. "How did you do that?"

Bonnie loosens her grip on Matt's hand, leaning back on her heels. "It wasn't me," she says, her eyes finding Damon's in the dimly lit room.

Damon's eyes widen just a bit in understanding. He holds out his hand and Bonnie takes it, allowing him to pull her to her feet once again.

It makes sense now. All of this makes sense.

Claudette's vision rang true about Allie. Even still in the womb, she was already so powerful, so strong. Her magic was pure and White. And if the Gollum coven laid a finger on her - that magic would change.

Bonnie could see it already, she could see what would happen if the Black coven managed to take Allie. Someday in the future, she would be standing on the opposite side of a field against her own daughter, against her own flesh and blood.

That wasn't going to happen. She was _not _going to let that happen.

* * *

_SLAM!  
_

Enzo finds his glass flying out of his hand and his face making a very painful contact with the bar.

An invisible hand pulls him up by the back of the neck and he's moving through the air so damn quickly that he doesn't have time to scream as he goes headfirst into the opposing wall. His nose cracks and begins to bleed.

"Ah, so you are here for your little non-human friend Matt," Enzo chuckles through the blood in his mouth.

No answer.

"Bonnie lass, could you at least turn me around so I can see your glow?"

_BAM._

His nose smashes against the wall again, breaking right up to the hilt. Enzo moans out in pain and spats a mouthful of blood out onto the floor. And then, like invisible strings were controlling him like a marionette puppet, his whole body twists in mid air and he's hovering with his feet several inches off the ground.

Bonnie moves into his line of sight, her green eyes burning in her skull.

"My, my, my, you are angry," Enzo chuckles around the mess on his face.

Bonnie doesn't say a word, her arms crossed in front of her belly.

"I can feel the power that is your child," Enzo says. "And the power that is you. Sometimes, I wonder why I even looked Blondie's way when you were around."

"Flattery will not get you anywhere with me, Lorenzo," Bonnie finally says. "What you did - "

"What I did was save a little time. The boy had it coming," Enzo groans, rolling his eyes.

"Had it coming?!" Bonnie growls. "He's done nothing to you except be polite and courteous! You cheated him out of a promotion, of course he would be angry!"

"Angry," Enzo scoffs. "Try being locked in a cage like an animal and being used in one horrific science experiment after another. Then he'll be angry."

"Oh, boo-hoo," Bonnie snaps. "I'm done listening to that sob story. Yes, what the Augustines did was wrong and sick and disgusting. I get that. But you think that you can use that to get into my good graces? Into Caroline's? Then you are out of your mind!"

With that, the magic link breaks and Enzo goes crashing to the floor in a very less than dignified heap right at Bonnie's feet. Those booted feet turn on their heels and stomp away.

Enzo yanks himself up, wiping the blood off of his face as he moves. "Bonnie! Hey, Bonnie!" Using his full speed, he beats her to the door of the Grille. "Listen to me, lass -"

Bonnie lays a useless punch into his shoulder. "No! No, I am not going to listen to any excuses, Enzo."

"Why should you care, lass?" Enzo says. "Why should you really give a damn?"

"Because I was starting to trust you and consider you a friend, you ass," Bonnie snaps.

At those words, something breaks behind Enzo's normally cold black eyes. A little bit of warmth and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of humanity.

"But now you've blown it."

She burns the hand that is holding onto her shoulder and pushes him out of the way, sliding through the door and slamming it behind her.

* * *

**.**

**.**

**Uh-oh. Enzo has really blown it big time. I had always planned on Matt becoming a vampire in this story and I know it happened kind of early but that's the point. He needs to be a vampire so he can help protect Allie. And with Matt being so accepting of becoming one of the un-dead, I kind of pictured that after being around vampires so long, he just knew that it was only a matter of time before someone nailed him. And he's only 20 years old. He doesn't want to die. **

**Just a heads up, baby Allie is going to be born quite soon. **

**PS. Playlist for this fic is up on my tumblr : lydiawillsavestiles**


	5. the coven

_**the coven**_

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

'i never feared death or dying  
i only fear never trying  
i am whatever i am,  
only god can judge me, now  
one shot, everything rides on tonight  
even if I've got three strikes, ima go for it,  
this moment, we own it'  
**-'we own it', 2 chainz**

**.**

**.**

**.**

It happens so damn quickly that Bonnie doesn't even have a chance to cry out. As soon as she exit's the Grille, her vision swims in front of her almost like a bad case of vertigo. But it's not.

* * *

"_The spell is weakening, Sean. I can see glimpses of Claudette's whereabouts." _

_Sean, a tall man with blond hair that hangs in a ponytail at the base of his neck and the most startling golden eyes, kneads his palms together, nodding thoughtfully at the witch's words. _

"_Sofia, that is very good news. But do you have an exact location?" he asks. _

_Sofia, a pretty witch with auburn hair that hangs in a braid down her back and heavily made up eyes that make her resemble a tigress, shakes her head. _

"_Nothing yet, sir. But I do get flashes."_

"What kind of flashes?"

_Sofia takes in a deep breath. "I do believe she has warned the parents of the child." _

"_That child ..." Sean shifts backwards and slides down into a chair that materializes out of mid air. "She is special. She will be glorious and stronger than all of us put together. We must obtain her. The parents -" _

"_What?" Sofia asks, leaning down next to Sean. He doesn't meet her eyes until the very last second. _

"_We must take that child as soon as she's born. At any cost," Sean says. _

"_You mean, the parents -?" Sofia says softly. _

"_The parents must be put down." _

* * *

Bonnie swallows a painful scream as the images clear from her line of sight. There is a shuffling behind her and she allows herself to stagger backwards into the sturdy arms that belong to Enzo.

"Bonnie, are you all right?" Enzo asks her worriedly.

Bonnie nods, pressing the pads of her fingers into her temples, trying to push away the dull pounding that now resides there.

"I'm fine," she grunts. "I'm fine."

She can tell that Enzo doesn't believe her but she doesn't really care right now. All she wants is to get to Damon.

* * *

After shaking Enzo off, Bonnie finds herself sitting in the public park, curled on a bench.

She has no idea why the hell she is there. She should be running for the hills.

"Bonnie?"

She peers up into the sun and finds those silver eyes.

"Hey," she whispers as Damon sits down beside her on the bench, pulling her feet into his lap.

"What's the matter?" Damon asks. "You sounded upset on the phone."

Bonnie glances sideways at the vampire slash baby daddy beside her and lets out the tiniest of sighs before she plows into the story. She tells him about her fight with Enzo (he stops to applaud her when she tells him that she broke Enzo's nose twice without even touching him), leaving the Grille and then the vision. She tells him about these Gollum witches, Sean and Sofia, and how they are getting closer to finding them.

As she talks, Allie begins to nudge her.

_It's okay, Mom. I'm right here. _

A light strength begins to flow through her, less fear, more determination.

She doesn't even realize it when Damon takes her hand, folding it between both of his.

"Let's get these bastards," he mutters.

Bonnie nods, her eyes hardening.

Battle lines have been drawn.

* * *

Another month goes by.

The others, including Enzo, have been let in on what exactly is happening. Despite being pissed at him, Bonnie knew he was involved from day one, from the moment he heard Allie's heartbeat and informed her that she needed to tell Damon the truth.

As Bonnie enters her thirtieth week of pregnancy, she knows that it's coming down to the end of the line.

Caroline accompanies her to her second to last ultrasound appointment. As they head into the doctor's office, Bonnie can't really help but wonder if they will make it to the last one…

"And here she is, perfectly beautiful," Dr. Reller informs her as the picture lights up on the screen.

Caroline leans forward, cooing like she has just seen a baby puppy on the side of the road.

"Oh, Bonnie," Caroline whispers, taking her friend's hand. "She's so pretty."

Bonnie smiles softly, ignoring the rising heat behind her eyes.

"Yes, she is."

* * *

They rise gracefully from the ground as soon as they touch down.

Journeys have never been difficult. In fact, they were almost easy and enjoyable after getting control of the actual transition.

Sean allows his senses to dart out, searching, pondering.

He can feel the child's life force and he can feel the heavy protection around it. Not just the lives of her mother and father but of others. Of an uncle and an aunt. Of a brand new vampire and his sire.

This fight wasn't going to be easy. He could almost touch the strength, the bonds between the six of them. Of the child's guardians. The mother, the Bennett, she was strong and straight. She would be unbreakable until the very end.

He knew then what he had to do.

Sean turns, looking back at his followers. At the delicate Sofia who stood mere inches away from him. The large and lean Zander, who stood on his other side. Lisa – pretty and petite – and with a bite like a lioness.

"They are here," he whispers. "Tread carefully. Blend in as best as you can. Do not do anything unless I give you the order, do you understand?"

Silent nods are his answer.

"All right. Let's go."

* * *

When the man materializes right in front of Bonnie, she nearly falls over in fright. She had seen a lot of strange witchcraft and magic in her lifetime but this -? This was the strangest.

"What the hell?!" she snarls, without even looking up into the thin face and golden eyes. "Are you out of your freaking mind? Why would you even - oh, crap."

Then she sees him for real.

"Sean," Bonnie breathes, fear starting to crackle away at her heart. "What are you -?"

"It's nearly time, Miss Bonnie," Sean says softly. Dangerously. "I wanted to come and see you before the birth."

"And why would you want to do a thing like that?" Bonnie says, taking in deep breaths. "This is my baby and you will never lay a finger on her."

"Bonnie, this is not something I enjoy doing," Sean says.

"Then why are you doing it?!" Bonnie snaps. "Why are you here? Why are you trying to take my baby away from me?!"

Sean sighs, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His golden eyes narrow into slits. His voice comes out even lower and more scathing than Bonnie had ever thought possible to come out of such a handsome face.

"Power is a priority, Ms. Bennett," he murmurs.

"And so is happiness," Bonnie rebuts him. "Life. Purity."

"That child," Sean says, gesturing towards Bonnie's stomach. "That child will be stronger than all of us. She could be so great -"

"She will!" Bonnie snarls. "And she will be amazing. But not with you. Now get the hell out of my house before I throw you out."

Sean's arms fall to his sides, his mouth slipping open.

"I believe you can do it, too," he whispers before starting towards her.

* * *

"Sean said no, Zander!"

The younger warlock grins mischievously, spying the blonde vampire sitting at the bar, conversing with the muscular new vampire as he wipes down shot glasses.

"Why not a little fun, Lisa?" Zander replies. He flips a lock of dark hair out of his blue eyes. "You take the boy and I'll take Blondie."

Lisa's coffee eyes dart towards the bar and she sighs. The bartender _was _cute, after all...

She shakes her head. "No," she says. "You can dig your own grave, I don't care. But I am not doing anything until I get the sign from Sean."

"And you really think Sofia will be able to keep her hands off that kid's father?" Zander replies. "If she can get away with it, she will rip Damon Salvatore limb from limb and turn him into a pile of ash. It gets one parent out of the way."

"And still the mother and four more guardians coming after us."

Zander lets out a huff of breath that sounds suspiciously like a snort of amusement.

"_Please_, Lisa," he says. "We beat Mikael back in the eighties. I think killing four young'un vampires will be like swatting flies."

With an elegant grace, Zander is on his feet and striding towards the bar where Caroline Forbes rests lazily, unaware of the danger that is just about to arrive.

* * *

He doesn't even sense the hit coming.

Coming out to the woods had been a stupid idea, with the new dangers that lurked about but - it was a place to escape. To think about things. To think about what the future could hold now that something beautiful was on the way.

But Damon Salvatore doesn't get a chance to think about his daughter or her beautiful mother. He doesn't get any kind of solitude that he so desires on this occasion.

Sofia has him pushed up against the tree, the branch dug deep into his belly within the blink of an eye.

"Who - the _hell _- are you?!" he gasps around the blood in his mouth.

Sofia smirks, her brown eyes blurring in front of his own as the haze sets in.

"Call me Sofia."

* * *

Bonnie's ready for him. He comes at her with his gold eyes alight with a kind of fire that should scare the hell out of her but it doesn't. She finds that power in his eyes and she blocks the first spell that he throws at her with such ease that she nearly trips over own feet.

Sean lands on his haunches, turning like a mad cat poised to pounce. His face contorts into an animal grow and he rises up, anger in those maddening eyes.

Bonnie steps back, raising her hands up in a lone attempt to protect herself. She allows the power to begin to flow from her fingers and for the first time, she draws on Allie.

She can feel Allie working hard inside of her, allowing her mother to take those bits of magic.

_Get 'im, Mom. _

* * *

Caroline gazes up into the blue eyes that belong to Zander, feeling that weird feeling of bliss spreading over her whole body.

He had approached her moments ago with the intent to buy her a drink. After a polite brush off with the information that she had a boyfriend, the man still persisted.

And suddenly, she found herself accepting the drink. A big stupid flirty grin crosses her lips and she begins to talk to this man, getting lost in those handsome blue eyes.

There's something wrong though –

Something she can't shake.

What the hell is going on?

* * *

The haze stops as soon as it begins. He hears Sofia let out a shout of anger and frustration and her soft weight is pulled away from him.

His vision clears and he sees the redheaded witch laying on the ground with a tall figure standing over her. Sofia is on her feet in an instant and Damon is still struggling to push himself away from the tree. It takes him a moment to realize that the branch is still in his stomach.

Stefan pulls Sofia up to her feet none too gently, twisting her around so his hands are clamped around her wrists.

"Who the hell are you?!" he growls in her ear. "Who are you?!"

"It doesn't matter!" Sofia chokes when Stefan's hand goes around her throat. "It's too late!"

"Too late for what?" Stefan demands.

Sofia then smiles.

She fucking smiles.

And dematerializes.

Stefan is only holding onto air.

The shock wears off after a moment and the brothers look at each other.

"Bonnie."

* * *

"_Why a baby?!_" Bonnie demands. "Why an innocent baby? Why not a fully grown witch?"

"That is an interesting question," Sean says, almost as if they are discussing the weather. "But a fully grown witch already has values, has been taught the ways that it will always believe. Pity though. You could have been brilliant with us."

Oh.

_Oh. _

"We tried to come for you back in the early nineties," Sean says. The two begin to circle each other like two warriors ready for battle. "But your grandmother, the lovely Sheila got in the way of that. She was severely weakened in the process but because of some protector of your line – she didn't die like she was supposed to."

Bonnie stares. He couldn't be talking about … no.

No freaking way.

Bonnie's done talking.

The last blast of power knocks Sean right off his feet. He rises up within a blur of motion, faster than anything Bonnie has ever seen come from a witch.

"That child will be mine, Bonnie Bennett," Sean says quietly. "I am sorry."

"No, you're not," Bonnie murmurs. "You've been doing this for centuries. You have no remorse."

"Maybe," Sean says, shrugging a shoulder. "But I am stronger than you."

"Show it."

"Not while you still carry her," he says, raising one finger towards her stomach. "You will see me again."

And he's gone.

* * *

The brothers separate and Stefan finds himself reaching his mind out, looking for Caroline's life force. He probes the air, looking for her light.

He finds it at the Grille but it's not full of light.

A darkness – something so wrong and evil is around her. Something – something that he will not let touch her.

He arrives at the door of the Grille and kicks the door open.

The sight before him - god, it's wrong.

One man stands in the center of the room, his arms held out and his head cocked back. His lips move silently, the whisper of Latin coming off his tongue.

The humans watch him with an intent, with a compelled look.

One woman sits at a nearby table, her chin resting on her hand and her brown eyes glazed over with boredom. Everyone else watches this man, everyone except –

His eyes find Caroline collapsed on the floor, her blond hair cast over her face. He can pick up the tiniest scent of blood and he swallows against the bile that rises in his throat.

She knew. She figured it out and she fought.

That's when it makes sense for Stefan.

The danger is here.

Before even thinking, Stefan flies at the warlock, his teeth bared and snapping viciously at his throat. The warlock barely even blinks an eye and he whirls a hand around, catching Stefan right in the temple. Blood begins to spill from the gaping wound in his forehead and pain clouds his brain.

"_Stefan!" _

Another voice is plunging it's way through that heavy mist, something that he can hear.

And a familiar pair of hands pull him up and shove him away from the line of fire. A groan of pain replaces his own and forces his eyes open to see Matt down on his hands and knees in front of Zander. His own blood drips to the floor, added to the pool of Stefan's.

Stefan tries to ignore his desire to reach in and pull Matt away but in the end, that would be a waste of Matt's sacrifice. He looks up at the warlock and sees he isn't even aware of what is going on around him, he is almost faded out in that lustful look of holding onto power.

The witch that sits at the table is now rising. She casts her dark hair out of her eyes and holds up a hand, her brown eyes darkening.

With strength that he didn't even know he had, Stefan wraps an arm around Caroline's stirring form, hoisting her up. He reaches out and grabs onto a wad of Matt's teeshirt, pulling him back from the warlock's spell. The warlock nearly falls as the spell finally breaks, only to be hoisted up by the witch's own spell.

"Go!" Matt yells in Stefan's ear.

And they run.

* * *

He finds Bonnie in a heap on the bed.

"_Bonnie!" _Leaping through the window, he comes to rest beside her on the bed. A hand reaches out and his heightened hearing searches for a heartbeat.

"I'm fine, Damon," Bonnie murmurs, her face still buried into her pillow. "It's okay."

"Are you sure?" he asks softly.

"Yes," Bonnie says, finally pulling herself out of the pillow. "We're both fine."

"Huh -?" It takes Damon just a second to realize he hadn't even thought about Allie at all. For those brief moments, he thought about Bonnie and if she was okay. That was all that mattered.

"They're here, Damon," she whispers. "They're coming for Allie as soon as she is born."

"I know," Damon says. "I just had a little run in with a witch that pissed me off."

That's when Bonnie notices the blood staining his shirt and jacket. Her eyes dart back up to his white face and she takes his hand.

"The others?"

Damon nods. "I think we are going to have a bit of a problem."

* * *

Enzo had gone back and checked later and found the Grille alive with it's normal hustle and bustle. The humans were fine, not even a scratch. It was like –

It was like that it was all in their heads. Like they had imagined the whole thing.

But it wasn't. Caroline, Stefan, and Matt all had the headaches to prove it.

"So now what? We stay here like sitting ducks and wait for the big bad coven to come back and rip that baby right out of you?"

Bonnie shakes her head at Enzo's words, rising up to her feet with some help from Caroline.

"No."

"Then what, Bonnie?" Enzo suddenly demands. He flashes in front of her, his black eyes poring into her own. "What the hell are we supposed to do?!"

"'We'?" Bonnie repeats. "You weren't even freaking here!"

The nearby table begins to shake.

"Bonnie –" Caroline's voice is low.

"Where the hell were you when we were getting our brains fried by the Gollums?!" Bonnie demands. "You expect to be a part of this? Then you shouldn't have turned Matt against his will!"

"Are we really going to go onto that again?" Enzo spits.

"Yes!"

And Enzo is on the floor, howling in pain as his hands claw at his forehead.

"Bonnie, stop it!"

It's Matt this time. He blurs over and quickly grabs her shoulders, pulling her out. Bonnie slaps at his hands.

"Why did you stop me?!" It doesn't really matter that everyone is gathered around, staring at them like they are exhibits in a freak show. Bonnie doesn't really give a damn about that.

All she wants it to cause pain to those who had hurt her. Who had threatened her and harmed her and her loved ones in some way.

She is so angry. And she hates being angry.

"Because it's not you, Bonnie!" Matt says. "None of this is you."

"He deserves it!" Bonnie snarls, pointing to a still downed Enzo. "I trusted him and what he did to you –"

"I get it!" Matt cuts across. "And believe me, I think he deserves to have his intestines pulled out and shoved back down his throat but he's right. He can help. And what we need right now is to figure out a way to get around this."

Taking deep gulps of air, Bonnie suddenly slumps against Matt's chest. She catches Damon's stare and ignores it.

Another gentle hand rests on the small of her back and she looks up into the worried blue eyes that belong to Caroline. Her brown hand reaches out and takes her pale one.

Stefan, Enzo, and Damon stand back, watching this moment that they are not allowed in. Stefan turns away out of respect but Enzo and Damon both continue to watch.

"We hide," Bonnie says. "Until she born."

Matt steps back, allowing Bonnie to straighten.

Allie nudges her mother.

"And then we kick some Gollum coven ass."

**.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**It has begun. All of the craziness has begun. **

**I apologize for this chapter, I have never been too good at writing action sequences. I always feel like it becomes an 'he said, she said, he did, she did' kind of work. I wanted to show just how strong and scary the freaking Gollums are. Especially Zander. Zander is like the muscle of the coven while Sean is the brains. **

**I think, I cannot promise, but I think Alexandra will be born next chapter. **

**Reviews? **


	6. place to hide

_**place to hide**_

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

'i should be crying but i just can't let it show  
should be hoping but i can't stop thinking  
i know you have a little life in the end  
i know you have a lot of strength left'**  
****-'this woman's work', greg laswell **

**.**

**.**

**.**

Bonnie watches from the Camaro as Claudette walks slowly around the edge of the property, muttering near silent words of Latin underneath her breath. She can recognize the incantation as a very complex cloaking spell, something that she had had a difficult time in mastering.

"Bonnie?"

Claudette's voice pulls her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?" she calls back.

"Would you and Alexandra like to help me?" the young witch says.

So she does.

Claudette had returned to town moments after the Gollum coven had disappeared. Even after Damon called her every name in the book for taking off, she came up with the idea of this cabin high up in the woods, far away from prying human eyes. As it turned out, Stefan knew the cabin too, having discovered it a few years back during one of his hunts.

It seemed like the perfect place for Bonnie and Damon to hide and wait out the last month until the baby came. There was just one problem.

Caroline, Stefan, Enzo, and Matt all had to come with them.

Because of the Gollum's attack, they were marked as guardians of the baby. Especially Stefan since he was a direct blood relation. His blood was a part of Allie and he was a perfect entrée for a disastrous main course in Black witchcraft.

The cabin had a total of two bedrooms, one bathroom, one tiny little living room, and a kitchenette. The previous owners must have been deceased because there was no trouble getting the vampires inside.

And poor Bonnie was the only human in the bunch. She had always counted on Matt to back her up on these kinds of things but since Enzo had gotten bored that night -

Enzo. The mere thought of him made her blood boil. For some reason, she was more angry at him than she ever was at Damon for all the crap that he pulled and that was saying something.

"Bonnie? Bonnie, you're killing the connection."

"Hmm? Oh!"

Pulled out of her thoughts by Claudette's delicate voice, Bonnie realizes that sparks are suddenly flying right from her fingertips. Well, that's new. She had never been able to master pyrokinesis before. Anger was the basis of it.

"Sorry," she says, wiping her now sooty hands off on her jeans. "Just got caught up in something."

"Understandable," Claudette says softly. "It's been a hell of weekend for you and the others."

"You can say that again," Bonnie replies. She picks up the chant once again, allowing the power from her and Allie to work through her hands. As the final word leaves her lips, she lets out a huff of breath that she didn't realize she had been holding.

"So this will hold until twenty-four hours after the baby is born," Claudette says as she approaches Bonnie. "The spell will fade within those last hours and that is when you need to get her out of here."

Bonnie nods. "All right."

Claudette swallows a lump in her throat before holding out her hand to the younger witch.

"And this is where I leave you."

"You're not staying?" Bonnie whispers.

Claudette shakes her head, her blue eyes soft. "Someone has to keep an eye on the town. I will send you a warning when they arrive."

Bonnie then takes Claudette's hand in both of her own. The Light power begins to spread from her fingers into Claudette's. The older witch lets out a gasp as the Light shines right up her arm and into her eyes.

"What was that?" she asks once Bonnie releases her.

"A gift," Bonnie says with the tiniest hint of a smile. "And a thank you."

Bonnie knew everyone else thought she was nuts, trusting this woman, but she did. And she believed that Claudette would do what she could to help them when the time came.

That Light she had given her was a different kind of protection spell. She drew just on her own power, not Allie's, and it was the first time she had ever done this before.

Something magnificent. Something beautiful.

Allie gives her an appreciative nudge and Bonnie smiles.

"Be safe," she says.

"Oh, it doesn't matter if I am," says Claudette as her own spell begins to kick in. "As long as you and that baby are."

And then she's gone, disappearing in a flash of color that is so bright, so beautiful.

* * *

Living in a four room cabin with six other people, well - it was just a bit irritating.

Bonnie woke early one morning to Caroline's screeching at the top of her little lungs about Enzo hogging the bathroom like a teenage girl.

"What the hell -?" she moans pulling herself out of the tiny camper bed. She stomped down the hallway towards the bathroom where Caroline and Enzo stood bickering like brother and sister. She was ready to rip some new ones, she had had a hell of a night with Allie dancing the rhumba the whole night and jumping up and down on her bladder.

"Hey!" Bonnie yells, garnering the two vampires' attentions. "It is seven o'clock in the morning, the baby kept me up all night. I was hoping I could at least sleep until eight and then I wake up to two vampires acting like a couple of twelve year old brats! Now out of my way, I have to pee."

Without even touching him, she sends Enzo flying to the floor and away from the bathroom door, quickly sliding through and slamming the door behind her.

As she prepares to use the facilities, she hears Caroline's voice carry right through the door.

"Hormones," she says to a grumbling Enzo. "How would you feel if you were carrying Damon's baby? You'd be a little grumpy too."

"I am not grumpy!"

* * *

"Bonnie, you're up early."

Out of everyone who had been driving her crazy, Stefan had been the least. Bonnie walks through into the kitchen, plopping herself down at one of the chairs at the table. She groans when she feels it creak under her weight.

"God, I'm getting so fat," she moans. Looking up at Stefan who places a tall glass of orange juice in front of her, she adds: "Could you please get a handle on your girlfriend and her bathroom privileges? She's driving me crazy!"

Stefan hides a laugh. "I'll talk to Caroline."

At the voice of her uncle, Allie begins to kick like crazy. Bonnie nearly chokes on her orange juice, wiping off the bit that had dribbled down her chin.

"What's the matter?" Stefan asks.

"Oh, nothing," Bonnie smiles, her grumpy mood rapidly disappearing. "Allie just went a little nuts when she heard your voice."

Stefan turns widened green eyes her way and she laughs, pulling the robe away from her pajama clad belly.

"Do you wanna?" she asks.

Stefan manages a tiny smile before he sits down on the other chair, raising a tentative hand before placing it on her belly. Bonnie's hand covers his and guides it towards the kicks.

Allie's kicking slows at the touch, moving into something more gentle.

Stefan looks back up at Bonnie with wonder.

"It's funny," he says softly, pulling his hand away. "There's a real person growing inside of you."

"Yes, there is," Bonnie grins. That smile fades after a moment. "I can see why you and the others had to come on this little outing too. Allie has already -"

"I know," Stefan supplies. "I know, Bonnie."

"Stefan, I'm sorry."

His bushy brows rise and he gazes at her in surprise. "What on earth are you sorry about? This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault."

"But you shouldn't have to be here," Bonnie says. "You shouldn't have to uproot your whole new life just to be stuck here in this dinky cabin with a bunch of people you don't like."

"I like you," Stefan says, waggling his brows at her. "And I like her." He rises to his feet and walks over to the doorway where Caroline had just appeared.

"You better like me," Caroline smirks before planting a quick kiss on his lips. "Bonnie, how are you feeling?"

"Better," Bonnie says. "Sorry about yelling at you."

"And throwing Enzo across the room," Caroline chuckles.

"You did?" Well, that merry little fact brightens Stefan up just a little bit. "Why?"

"You don't want to know," Bonnie groans, She looks up at Caroline. "Sorry," she says again.

Caroline shakes her head as she accepts the cup of coffee Stefan presses into her head. "No matter. I understand. I mean, I don't understand what you're going through but I get that you're eight months pregnant and you're miserable. It must be -"

"Caroline?" Stefan interrupts his girlfriend's babbling. "Shut up."

* * *

The days crawl by.

The protection and cloaking spells that Claudette had performed on the house had an effect on everyone in the house. No one could go farther than the front porch or they would be locked outside the boundary of the spell and unable to get back in until the baby was born.

Well, that made things (and vampires) go a little crazy.

"I swear, if I could, I would drop dead right now," Enzo moans. "That would be more interesting than this right now."

"I wish you would drop dead," says Bonnie from the couch.

Enzo glances her way, trying his best to look nonchalant about her words even though he is hurt. Bonnie catches that look and chooses to ignore it as well as the guilt that squirms in her stomach.

"Bonnie -"

"Enzo, just don't talk to me, all right?" Bonnie interrupts. "Don't give me any of your excuses."

"I don't have an excuse," he says, his tone gritty.

"Oh, really? No excuse? No reason for why you just turned Matt into a vampire on a whim?"

This time, Bonnie is on her feet after hauling herself up with some effort. She stands closer to Enzo and realizes that the top of her head barely comes up to his chin. Is she really that short?

But Enzo backs up a bit, Bonnie's big stomach bumper in the way. "No, I don't," he says icily. "But I am done apologizing."

"You haven't apologized once!" Bonnie bursts out. Oh, crap. She's on a roll. " 'Oh, I'm sorry, Bonnie for turning your best friend into a vampire.' Or, how about - 'I'm sorry, Matt. I was bored and you pissed me off so I thought I'd just turn you into a vampire for the heck of it'."

"He did."

Matt's voice is so sudden and startling that Bonnie nearly falls over. She turns to see him standing in the archway that led to the cramped hallway, leaning against the door frame with such ease and grace.

"What?" Bonnie whispers.

"He did apologize," Matt says softly. "And I forgave him. I didn't see a point in hating him forever when I might need him on my side in the future."

"Matt -" Bonnie begins, pointing a shaking hand towards the vampire beside her. "_This _is the reason why you won't have that life you told me that you always wanted. He took that away from you."

Matt shakes his head. "Nah, he didn't. I've just got to work a little bit harder to get that life. It just won't be as easy as it would have been."

For the first time in her life, Bonnie Bennett is speechless. She always had a rebuttal, a reason for everything but now she has none.

She swivels her eyes back to Enzo who at the moment looks like a wounded animal before gazing back at Matt.

He was still Matt, she realizes then. He was still the attractive, funny, sweet, and loving Matt Donovan that everyone fell in love with. He was just a little less fragile now.

It makes sense then. All of it makes sense.

Caroline had changed after becoming a vampire. Her life became more difficult but she had learned from her mistakes and learned how to become a better person because of them. She had chosen to hold onto what had meant the world to her.

Elena - her breaking point had been her transition. After becoming a vampire, something within her had broken away and she wasn't the best friend that Bonnie and Caroline had loved and cherished for so long. Bonnie hoped the best for her but saying goodbye had been the best thing she could have done.

Matt was still Matt. Because he chose to remain that way.

And Stefan and Damon? Well, there was still so much more to learn.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie," Enzo murmurs softly. "I'm sorry I destroyed your trust. And I am sorry for what I did to your friend."

With the blink of an eye, he disappears from her sight, leaving her feeling more stripped and exposed then ever.

* * *

"Are you all right?"

Damon's voice is more gentle than she is used too. But she finds comfort there that she hadn't found in a while.

Bonnie sighs, gazing off into the little world she had been lost in. Damon had found her sitting on the front steps of the tiny cabin minutes before, staring into the oblivion that Claudette had concocted.

"I will be," she says. "I am just still so angry," she adds, saying each word with emphasis. "I am more angry at him than, honestly, than I ever was at you for all the bullshit that you pulled."

"Well, that makes me feel so good," Damon says, rolling his eyes as he sits down on the step beside her.

Bonnie sighs, shifting so she could look at Damon. "What you said, when people see bad, they expect bad, and when they see good, they expect good? You're right."

"Nice to know."

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

"Yes, I do."

"I - I don't think I can forgive him," Bonnie says softly.

"You don't have too," Damon says, his tone light. "You don't have to let him get away with it."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"You get on with it," Damon says and Bonnie finally meets his eyes. "Just like you did with me. Because whether you like it or not, we're here to stay."

Bonnie manages a smile at last before taking a chance. She lifts up her cocoa hand and takes his ivory one, giving it a squeeze before releasing it.

"I cannot believe I am saying this, but that was good advice, Damon."

"It's been known to happen on occasion," Damon says. Before he rises to his feet, she catches the mere whisper of a smile on his lips.

* * *

A few more days crawl by.

Bonnie moves out of the shared bedroom with Caroline and onto the couch. The creaky camp bed was starting to hurt her back and the couch offered more support. Stefan moved off the couch and in with Caroline.

One night, Bonnie awakes to Allie jumping around in her belly. Sheesh, this kid was kicking the crap out of her. She was surprised that she wasn't waking up with bruises all along her belly.

As Bonnie blearily approaches consciousness, she soon understands the reason for Allie being so excited.

Damon is sitting on the floor beside the couch, his head leaning back and resting ever so lightly against the side of her stomach. She can feel Allie shifting closer as Damon continues to speak so softly, so gently that the words are almost foreign to Bonnie.

"...and your mom?" Damon murmurs. "She's badass. She can kick anyone's ass without even touching them. I can tell that you are going to be just like her."

Allie squirms, letting a little kick go against her stomach and right into the side of her dad's head.

Bonnie continues to pretend to be asleep, listening to Damon's words. Words of love towards the tiny being that was still safe inside of her. Words of faith and hope for a better future for her, better than the both of them had ever had. He doesn't go overboard with the lovey-dovey crap, because that's just not Damon. But in every single word that he says and every single movement that Alexandra makes, Bonnie knows. She just knows.

She drops back off to sleep within a matter of minutes, more comfortable and more at peace that she has been in quite some time.

* * *

"I swear to God, I am going to find a way to tap dance on the ceiling, I am so freaking bored."

"Blondie, that is the third time you have said that in the last hour. If you say it again, I am going to drain you dry."

"And then I will blast you into oblivion. Can we all just shut up?"

One week to go and Bonnie was nearing the end of her rope. Being stuck in a tiny house for four weeks with a group of bad tempered vampires was enough to drive anyone up the wall.

She praised the heavens above that every vampire brought their own stock of blood bags with them. Even Matt had stocked up quite quickly after turning. Bonnie couldn't help but wonder if he had always had that freezer full of blood bags just in case.

"I have an idea," Enzo suddenly pipes up. "How about we play a little truth or dare?"

Caroline gazes at him from her perch across the room. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Enzo says. "May that make these last seven days a bit more interesting."

"I'm game," Caroline says, blurring into the kitchen and returning a moment later with a huge bottle of wine. She plops herself down on the floor in front of the couch, leaning her head back beside Bonnie's elbow. "Bonnie?"

Allie lets out a kick that makes Bonnie grunt. "The kid just said yes so I guess I will too."

"I think you're all crazy," Matt pipes up. But he doesn't make anymore arguments and lowers himself down beside Caroline on the floor, snatching the bottle away from her and ignoring her feeble protests.

Stefan and Damon were outside in the tiny connecting garage, noodling with Stefan's Jeep. Bonnie considers getting up and escaping to where they are but something tells her to stay where she is.

"Who wants to go first?" Enzo asks as he allows his long body to flop dramatically into the other armchair, his legs cast carelessly over the side. He holds a glass of blood expertly in his hand.

"I'll go," Matt pipes up unexpectedly. He turns to Caroline. "Truth or dare?"

Caroline laughs, shaking her head. "Dare."

Matt hands her back the wine. "I dare you too..." he leans his head back, gazing up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"I got it," Enzo interrupts. "Since we have the protective spells around the property, I dare you to run outside, screaming at the top of your lungs and then run into the garage and flash Stefan and Damon."

Bonnie and Matt burst out laughing. Caroline glowers in their direction before crossing her arms in front of her chest defiantly.

"I will not do that," she says with a growl.

And it goes downhill from there.

"Why not?" Enzo asks. "Are you afraid?"

"No!" Caroline snaps.

"Then what is it? Did you perhaps sleep with a set of brothers, blondie?"

Bonnie raises a hand. "Enzo, shut up while you're ahead."

Enzo ignores her and latches on to what he sees in Caroline's face. "You did, didn't you?" he says. "You've boffed a pair of brothers."

"And so what if I did?" Caroline replies, her voice lowering dangerously. "I am not perfect. I've made mistakes."

"I just can't believe that Damon never told me about his blonde conquest," Enzo says with a laugh. "I think he's mounted most of the female population by now."

"Enzo!" Bonnie says with more warning. "Stop being an asshole, okay?"

The look that Enzo casts her, it's a look of the old Enzo that she had known and disliked immensely. A look that tells her that –

Bonnie holds out a hand to Matt. "Can you pull me up?" she asks. Matt obeys, gently raising her to her feet with one hand on her back to steady her. "Enzo, come with me."

"And if I don't?" Enzo replies with a smirk that immediately turns into a wince of pain. "Okay, I get the picture."

The dark haired vampire gets to his feet and follows the immensely pregnant girl outside. They walk down the steps together, Bonnie holding onto the railing to keep her balance. Once they are outside, Bonnie turns to the vampire, her voice dripping with anger.

"What the hell was that in there?!" she snarls.

Enzo actually has the gall to try and look innocent and that makes Bonnie's blood boil.

"A little truth or dare, lass."

"That wasn't truth or dare, that was you dragging Caroline over the coals and making her feel like crap. What the hell is your problem?" Bonnie demands again.

"I don't have a problem, lovely lass," Enzo says again, his hands resting on his hips. "And why should you even give a damn?"

"Because –" Bonnie's voice catches in her throat. And it comes out.

"Because I have seen so much bullshit in the past two years. I have seen my one best friend being turned into a vampire against her will and another be turned into someone that I don't even recognize anymore. I saw my Grams die right in front of me. I saw people I loved being slaughtered for no reason and I could do nothing to stop it."

Bonnie watches Enzo's face, his handsome face that she had come to treasure despite every instinct telling her not too. She sees the understanding finally take place in his midnight eyes, the real truth spreading through every bone in his body.

"Matt means the world to me, Enzo," she whispers. "And you did that to him. He will live forever now and it wasn't his decision."

"He still turned," Enzo says softly. "I didn't force him to do that."

"He's twenty years old," Bonnie says. "He doesn't want to die. And neither did you. Neither did any of the others."

"Then you get it."

"Yes, I get it. And I don't like it."

Enzo lets out a huff of breath, his tone moving closer to edgy and annoyed. "What the hell do you want from me, Bonnie? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg your forgiveness? Beg Matt's forgiveness?"

"No!" Bonnie snaps. Allie gives her a light nudge.

"Then what? Enlighten me please, little witch."

"I want you to understand and admit that you did something wrong," Bonnie says. "That's all I want from you."

And with that, Bonnie pushes past him and back into the house, not noticing the raven haired vampire watching.

* * *

Damon watches his friend from his perch, unable to hide his amusement.

"She kind of gets you right here, doesn't she?" Damon says, announcing his presence.

Enzo groans. "You could say that again."

Damon hides a grin, approaching Enzo with his full speed. "Get with it, Enzo. You are going to have to work a lot harder to get Bonnie Bennett's forgiveness."

"Perhaps," Enzo says. "I need to get out of here."

"What? Don't be stupid."

Enzo shakes his head and walks forward a few steps. He hits the edge of the barrier that Claudette had put up. He raises a hand and allows it to fall in front of him. His hand and forearm disappear, swallowed whole by the enchantment. The rest of him follows.

Damon stares at the spot where Enzo had been moment before.

"Enzo!" he shouts. "Enzo, you idiot!"

He quickly darts to where Enzo had been standing, allowing himself to do the same thing.

He knows he should just let Enzo go but –

Damon falls through the enchanted wall.

The other side of the wall shows a world that isn't as protected or at peace. He gazes around for his idiotic friend and sees nothing but hundreds and hundreds of trees.

He glances back over his shoulder, one palm pressed against his hip to where he feels his cell phone.

God, he hopes he can get back through.

But now he has to find that idiot Enzo.

* * *

Bonnie feels the first pain rip through her like a knife. She cries out in agony, clutching at her stomach with a sob.

"Bonnie!" Caroline is at her side in a moment. "Bonnie, what's the matter?"

Bonnie lifts her eyes up to Caroline's worried ones.

"The baby - she's coming."

**.**

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* * *

**Uh-oh! Allie's on the way and Damon's not there, chasing after freaking Enzo. Don't worry though, Allie is going to be just fine and Damon is not going to miss the birth. **

**I had to have Bonnie and Enzo have it out. She wants the same thing from him that she wants from Damon. She wants him to just admit that he was wrong. That he did something that was horribly wrong and when he does admit it, maybe, just maybe she can move past it because she does need him on her side. Enzo reminds me of Damon in many ways, a manchild who needs a good kick in the rear end. **

**Reviews? **


	7. alexandra

_**alexandra**_

* * *

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'be a bright red rose come bursting the concrete  
be a cartoon heart,  
light a fire, a fire, a spark  
light a fire, a flame in my heart.  
we'll run wild,  
we'll be glowing in the dark'**  
****-'charlie brown', coldplay**

**.**

**.**

**.**

Damon doesn't have to look too hard for Enzo. The younger vampire didn't make it too far. And neither did a late night hiker.

He watches for a brief moment as Enzo feeds on the poor sap, allowing the body to fall with a thud onto the ground. He pulls himself up and wipes his chin off with his sleeve, glimpses Damon and lets out a laugh.

"Ah, are you getting ready for your impending fatherhood and practicing on me?" he says with a smirk.

Damon quirks an eyebrow. "What?"

"Are you going to scold me running away? For going across the barrier?" Enzo says. "Because believe me, brother, I am not in the mood to hear it."

Damon steps closer. "I really don't care if you are in the mood. You are going to get your ass back to that cabin right now."

"Are you going to make me?" Damon is suddenly reminded of a twelve year old Stefan who didn't want to return to the house in time for dinner.

"If you want it that way," he says.

A low, guttural growl rips through his belly as his teeth elongate quite painfully. Enzo's ready for him.

* * *

She had been having light pains all day, thinking it was false labor but nope. No - freaking - ope. This was the real deal. Alexandra Salvatore was on the way.

Bonnie finds herself being half carried, half ushered into the one bedroom, lowered onto the bed a little harshly.

"Careful, Caroline," Bonnie gently reminds her friend.

"S-Sorry," Caroline stutters as she plumps the pillows up behind her. "Can I get you anything? What can I do?"

"Get ready to catch."

Both girls see Matt standing in the doorway, holding more pillows in his arms. Bonnie rolls her eyes. "It doesn't exactly work that way. Caroline, don't listen to him."

Her words bounce right off of Caroline's head. "Catch?!" she shrieks.

"Caroline, it's going to be fine - wait a minute! Why the hell am I comforting you?!"

That clicks. Caroline turns around and slides down beside Bonnie on the bed, wrapping an around her shoulders just as the first contraction begins to kick in. Once it's over, Bonnie peers up at Matt who is still in the doorway. It takes her a second to realize that his fingernails are embedded into the wood frame.

"Where's Stefan?" she asks, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"He's trying to track down Claudette," Matt says. "For now, we are on our own."

"What about Damon?" Caroline asks. "The jerk is supposed to be here."

Matt's dark blue hues dart to Bonnie before he looks at Caroline.

"Damon went after Enzo."

* * *

Despite being younger and not as strong, Enzo is a hell of a fighter. Damon's arm has been broken twice and his lip is dripping blood. Enzo doesn't look much better though.

None of this fight makes sense, just two guys beating the hell out of each other. But with each hit, each thud, each yowl of pain, Damon becomes angrier and angrier at his old friend.

Damon finally gets the upper hand after a minute, slamming Enzo into a tree and digging his own makeshift stake into his belly. Enzo howls in agony and rage, his own teeth bared and his eyes black.

"She's not yours!" Damon snarls.

Understanding dawns in Enzo's eyes and the bloody black fades. His teeth retract to their normal bluntness and he begins to chuckle without a hint of mirth or warmth.

"That's what this is, isn't it?" Enzo says. "Just you laying claim to another woman who will never want you."

Without mercy, Damon rips the stake from Enzo's belly, relishing in the sound of his extreme discomfort. He turns away, ignoring his moans. His eyes trace up to the pathway that he had taken, the return route to Bonnie -

At that moment, he feels a scream shatter the air. A scream that he feels hit him right in the heart.

Without looking back, he begins to run.

* * *

"I cannot believe that whoever had this cabin before had this."

Bonnie looks up to see Caroline thumbing through a thick book. Peering closer, she sees it's a medical book.

"What is it?"

"A book on emergency child birth," Stefan says, coming around the corner. "I got a hold of Claudette. She is on her way here but she can't lower the spell to let Damon and Enzo back in until -"

"Until the baby is here," Bonnie finishes for him. She winces as another shard of pain laces her stomach and back. "Damn it, Damon. You're supposed to be here." The pain becomes more pronounced and Bonnie's wince is turned into a scream. "Damn it, she's coming!"

* * *

_Damon...I need you..._

He continues to run at full speed, listening for that fragile sound of Bonnie's heart beating. He can feel Enzo running behind him, knowing that he must have heard the scream, felt the Call. He wonders why his own cell phone hasn't rung but he then realizes that maybe Claudette fixed it that way. If one of them had been stupid enough to cross the border of the protective spell, they would have a hell of time getting back in.

"When this is over, I am going to kick your ass for making me miss this," Damon growls over his shoulder at Enzo.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it," Enzo replies scathingly.

It isn't a far run back to the cabin. Damon can even see the barrier around it, almost like rippling waves in a gentle lake. And the brunette witch standing a few feet away with her fingers pressed to her temples.

Damon skids to a stop just beside Claudette, pulling one of her arms down and breaking the connection.

"Get me in there!"

Claudette yanks her arm away from his grip. "I'm trying!" she snaps. "If you hadn't been so stupid before, we wouldn't have to be doing this."

"I'm afraid that's my fault, lass," Enzo says from the other side of Damon. "Forgive me."

Claudette ignores him, placing both of her hands back up to her temples. Power crackles and simmers in the air, lacing up the side of the barrier right in front of them. Damon steps back, his hand clawing at his phone. He pulls it out and dials Stefan's number. When he hears his brother's voice on the other end, his knees almost give out.

* * *

"Oh, god. Oh, god, I see a head."

Bonnie is now propped up against about a dozen pillows, sweat pouring down her face, her hair in her eyes. Caroline is at the end of the bed, watching as Allie makes her first peek into the world.

Matt stands next to Bonnie, holding both of her hands in his own. She can feel his fingers crack under the pressure but he doesn't even wince, his eyes trained right on Caroline.

When Caroline pulls her hands away, a smear of blood rakes up her arm.

And veins begin to peek out from underneath Matt's eyes.

Caroline immediately senses the change in their friend.

"Stefan! Stefan, get Matt out of here!"

There is a clatter of noise and Stefan is suddenly beside Matt, awkwardly dragging him from the room. Before he goes, he throws his phone onto the edge of the bed beside Caroline's elbow.

"Damon," he says quickly.

Matt doesn't put up much of a fight, his eyes still directed right towards Caroline's bloody arms.

"I'm so sorry, Bonnie," Caroline says. "I should have thrown him out of here immediately."

"_You're sorry?!" _comes a very irritated voice from the phone. "_I swear to God, Blondie, if something happens to Bonnie because of you, I will rip your heart out!" _

"He's gone, Damon!" Caroline growls before knocking the phone to the floor. "Here come the shoulders!"

* * *

Damon closes his eyes, straining his hearing with every ounce of energy that he has. The phone in his hand is like a lifeline, a link to where he is supposed to be at this exact moment. He presses it closer to his ear in a vain attempt to get even closer.

"_There's the arms and - aw, look at the little fingers!" _

Fingers. Fingers. Little fingers. Ten little fingers.

"_Push, Bonnie, you're almost there!"  
_

A scream comes through the phone and Damon suddenly has the desire to punch a tree. In fact -

Claudette doesn't move a muscle as the tree beside her suddenly dissolves into splintery dust. Her eyes are still pressed closed, the Latin words rolling off her tongue in a swift chant.

"_And the hips - legs, knees, and feet! It's a girl!" _

She was here. Oh, God, she was here.

* * *

Bonnie collapses against the pillows, her sweaty hair plastered to her forehead. Another whimper of pain leaves her lips, her back and stomach still throbbing, not to mention a few other parts.

She waits to hear her daughter's scream of life.

But it doesn't come.

She pulls open one eye and sees Caroline holding the baby in her arms, gently thrumming on her nose.

"Caroline - why isn't she crying?"

Caroline ignores her, continuing in her movements. Still nothing.

"Stefan!" she cries out a moment later. "Stefan, get in here!"

There's a blur of motion and the younger Salvatore is beside Caroline and a still mute Alexandra.

"Stefan -" Caroline whispers. "She's not breathing."

* * *

"_She's not breathing." _

No. Nonononono.

"Damon -" Enzo begins. "Damon, I'm sure she's fine."

But Damon doesn't say anything. He doesn't say a word.

* * *

"Caroline!" Bonnie sobs. "Caroline -"

The two vampires pay no attention to her, both of them working furiously over the baby.

Bonnie watches through tearfilled eyes as Stefan takes the baby totally out of Caroline's arms, wrapping her in a towel, and turning her over on her stomach. He cradles her with ease and begins to gently run his fingers down her back. He pushes a little bit harder, Caroline's hand coming up to thrum on the baby's nose and mouth once again.

And then -

A tiny cough.

Oh, God, and _then - _

The brilliant cry of a newborn babe fills the air.

* * *

A hot tear escapes down Damon's cheek.

The last of the spell leaves Claudette and Damon nearly falls over in his haste to get to the house, the wall now down. He feels Enzo pacing behind him but doesn't care, his need to see his daughter - to know that Bonnie is okay - all of it was too great.

When he staggers through the bedroom door, passing by Boy Wonder in the process, the first thing he sees is Caroline's blond hair. He smells blood but ignores it, his other senses in full gear.

Caroline stands over Bonnie, blocking her from his view. He hears Bonnie's voice, barely making out the exhausted syllables of her words.

Then Caroline moves and he sees her.

For those few seconds, all he can see is Bonnie. Her face, more exhausted than ever, and more beautiful than ever. Her emerald eyes, alight with a relief and a happiness that Damon didn't remember seeing since before his mother had died.

Caroline and Stefan fade out and for that moment, they are just Bonnie and Damon, two people on the edge of the world.

A tiny coo comes from her arms and his own eyes drop.

She lays in her mother's arms, tiny, round, and perfect. A shock of raven fuzz covers the top of her head, a tiny lock of it falling across her forehead. Her skin is pale, paler than he thought it would be, and oh, dear god, she has his nose. Poor kid.

Long dark brown eyelashes rest against chubby cheeks, flashing open and green eyes stare back at him. Green eyes with a touch of silver -

He peels his own eyes away from her to find Bonnie's and for that moment, they just hold on.

_Look at what we made. _

"Alexandra Antonia Salvatore, this is your daddy," Bonnie whispers, glancing down at their now squirming daughter.

Damon steps closer, nearly tripping over his own feet. He reaches out a trembling hand to steady himself and sinks down onto the tiny bed beside her, wrapping on arm around Bonnie's shoulders while the other hand very gently touches Allie's face.

Allie gazes up at him like he was some alien from outer space that she was trying to study. Another lock of soft hair falls across her forehead and he brushes it away.

"She's -"

"...Perfect," Bonnie finishes for him.

"Just like her mother."

The words fly out of his mouth faster than he can control them but he doesn't try to take them back. Because they are the absolute truth.

"You wanna hold her?" Bonnie asks after a moment. The look that Damon gives her, one of a complete fear, it almost makes her laugh. "She's a baby. She won't break."

"But I might break her," Damon says, shifting back a bit as Bonnie abruptly places Allie in his arms.

Allie eyes him in such a way, almost like she knew everything already. Everything that he had done, all the bullshit that he had pulled. And it wasn't okay in her eyes. But he was her daddy. He was her daddy and she trusted him already. He just - he just needed to prove himself to her.

He would do that. This tiny creature, this tiny helpless (Well, not so helpless. She had already proven herself to be quite the badass) child was counting on him. Her mother was counting on him.

"Alexandra Antonia _Bennett _Salvatore," Damon adds softly.

The look that Bonnie gives him is so gentle that he is practically uncomfortable. Those looks are not usually reserved for him.

"It's a mouthful," she says.

"But it's right."

Allie begins to squirm a bit, trying to find the comfortable crook of her father's arms that she can settle down in.

Damon turns his eyes over to Bonnie again and finds her almost on the brink of sleep. Carefully balancing Allie in one arm, he wraps his other back around Bonnie's shoulders. She rests her head on his shoulder, her long coffee colored hair cascading around her face in chocolate waves. He presses his lips to the crown of her head in the gentlest of kisses.

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

Bonnie's and Allie's snores are simultaneous.

* * *

He finds Stefan curled on the couch, his head leaning back and his mouth slightly open as he dozes. He can hear the soft and even heartbeats of the others from where they are, scattered around the house - Guarding.

Allie had been settled in her cradle, covered by a light blanket. She slept on, unaffected by anything around her.

Claudette had replaced a new spell around the length of the property, one that was strong enough to hold for a certain amount of time. She already knew that the other Gollums were to soon discover that Allie was here and she was kicking some ass. But they didn't have long.

Stefan starts awake at the sound of Damon's clomping footfalls, his green eyes so unlike Bonnie's just a little confused.

"Are you all right?" Stefan asks when he sees him. He sits up, leaning forward like he is about to rise off the couch. "Allie and Bonnie all right?"

Damon nods, reaching out a hand and wrapping it around Stefan's upper arm, pulling him to his feet a little too abruptly.

"Damon, what -?" Stefan's words die in his throat as his brother pulls him into a hard embrace. His arms hang slack at his sides for a moment before they come up and clumsily pat Damon on the back.

Damon presses his palm into the back of Stefan's head, trying to pull him nearer. "Thank you," he whispers. "Thank you."

A light understanding crosses Stefan's eyes and he nods into Damon's shoulder, fully embracing him back. Something is telling him to hold his brother close, because there might not be a chance tomorrow.

* * *

"She looks like her father. Poor thing."

Bonnie rolls her eyes, leaning over the cradle to gently pull Allie up into her arms. Her daughter coos her consent, reaching out a chubby arm towards the man standing in the doorway of the miniscule bedroom.

Enzo steps a little nearer. "But she's got your eyes," he says. "And your power. I can feel it."

"You were on the receiving end of it before," Bonnie reminds him lightly.

"Ah yes, how can I forget that?" Enzo says with a smirk.

Bonnie steps forward a bit. "You want to hold her?"

Enzo looks positively alarmed at the question. But Bonnie can see the longing in his face, the light of humanity in his black eyes. She glances back down at Allie who giggles at something Bonnie can't see and without another word, she delicately places her in Enzo's arms.

It's like a staring contest between the vampire and the tiniest witch. Who can break first.

And of course, Enzo does.

He had felt her move when she was still in the womb. He had been the first to hear her fragile heartbeat, struggling to hold on in a life that was going to probably turn around and bite her. He had felt a connection to her that he had felt to her mother.

Gazing at her, he remembers his son. His small boy who had been taken away from him so many years ago.

Bonnie gasps slightly as Enzo allows her to see these pictures. Hot tears glaze her eyes as she watches, watches as a seventeen year old Lorenzo walks away from a baby boy that had looked so much like him and whom he loved so much.

"So that's why -?" she asks after a moment.

Enzo nods, delicately placing Allie back in her arms.

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

Bonnie nods too. What can she really say?

Without another word, he blurs from the room.

* * *

He watches as his daughter is passed from one set of arms to the other. When she is put in Matt's arms, he prepares to spring at any moment, ready to rip his heart right from his chest if the young vampire showed any sign of danger.

Matt cradles the chirruping child like an old pro, laughing with her when she sees something hilarious that only she sees.

Bonnie sits beside Matt, resting her head on his shoulder. And a miracle happens.

A light passes from Matt and into Bonnie and Allie. He recognizes it as the light that Allie had given him right after he had been turned. A gentleness, a peace and a presence of hope that can't be matched by anything else.

Bonnie gasps a little, turning worried eyes back on Allie who looks back at her with a big drooly grin.

"Thank you, Matt," Bonnie whispers.

Matt shrugs a shoulder as he puts Allie back in her arms. "It was the least I could do after what she and you did for me."

It's then that it truly makes sense for the group. A sense of why the Gollums want Allie. Why they want to make her one of their own because - because she's magnificent.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damon sees Caroline move from her perch and disappear through a set of doors that led to the kitchenette.

Bonnie's eyes follow Caroline's movements too and she rises up, preparing to follow. Damon holds up a hand and she sits back down. He moves with a weightless speed, feeling his brother's eyes burning holes in the center of his back.

He slips through the double doors and sees Caroline standing over the stove, fighting with the enormous cast iron kettle as she attempts to boil water. He watches her for a moment, amused at how this young vampire allows this hunk of junk to overpower her before he reaches in a hand and takes it away.

"I was perfectly capable of doing it myself!" Caroline growls.

"Yeah, I could see that," Damon smirks, adjusting the handle on the kettle before he flicks on the stove.

Caroline rolls her eyes before she strides for the fridge, reaching in and pulling out a blood bag for herself.

"What do you want, Damon?"

Here it comes. He wonders if she will try to break his neck. He wouldn't blame her if she did. But what is about to come out of his mouth is the truth. The absolute truth.

"I owe you an apology," he says.

Caroline freezes in her pursuit of a mug.

"What - did you just say to me?"

Damon nods. "A big apology. After what you did. What Stefan did. For Bonnie and Allie - I don't know what I would have done."

"It was second nature, Damon," Caroline says, dumping half of her blood bag into the mug. "I love Bonnie and that little girl. I would have done anything for them."

"That's just it -" Damon interrupts. "You could have let Allie die but you didn't."

"Excuse me?"

"Please don't take this the wrong way, Blondie, but I wouldn't really have blamed you if you did."

"You're digging yourself a huge hole here, Damon."

"Because you are better than me, Caroline," Damon says quickly. "And you always will be."

Caroline's jaw hangs open. He almost chuckles at the hilarious expression on her face.

"The point I am trying to make is - thank you. Thank you for delivering my girl. For you and Stefan saving her life. For helping Bonnie get through it," Damon says softly. "And - I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being the world's biggest asshole to you and for everything that I did."

Caroline stares at him like he had suddenly sprouted antlers. She continues to stare at him for so long that he becomes increasingly uncomfortable and when she pulls herself out of it, she starts to giggle.

"Well, well, well, if I die tomorrow, they will put on my grave 'She has seen it all'," Caroline laughs. "An apology from Damon Salvatore and a real one to boot."

Damon bristles with agitation. "Hey, if you don't want the apology, I will happily take it back."

"That's just it, Damon," Caroline says, her laughter receding. "You won't take it back because you mean it. And I think that's wonderful."

"So you accept?"

Caroline shakes her head so suddenly that Damon's insides almost wilt with a disappointment.

"No, I don't."

He prepares himself to snarl, to brush her off like an irksome fly.

"But I will."

His grey eyes find hers.

She gives him a light smile that is so out of the ordinary being reserved for him and him alone.

"I just need a little time. Can you give that to me?" Caroline asks.

Damon nods.

The kettle begins to whistle. Caroline turns away to turn the stove off, her blond ponytail sliding down her back like a ray of sunshine that had just fallen from the sky.

"By the way -" Caroline says before Damon exit's the kitchen. She reaches over and turns on the faucet, allowing the cold water to spatter down into the basin and the sound of it dulling her next words so no one hears them but him. "You need to tell Bonnie."

"Tell Bonnie?" Damon asks.

Caroline chortles in a such an annoying way that Damon is seized by an urge to throttle her.

"You will have to figure that out on your own."

With a cheery smile, she gently pushes past him into the living room, carrying a few more blood bags and two mugs of tea.

* * *

The first time Allie wakes up him screaming for the two o'clock feeding is when it happens.

He staggers out of his self made bed on the floor, having unceremoniously moved in with Bonnie now, and climbs to his feet. He stumbles over to the cradle and leans over his daughter, watching her burble for a few minutes.

"Okay kid, I get the picture," he says. "Hold your horses." He scoops her up and gently rests her against his shoulder to where she continues sob quietly. He pats her on the back and carries her carefully out of the room. "Can we tone it down so your mom can sleep? Please?"

"Agwug!" Allie answers him with a grunt, heaving another great snuffle.

Damon holds her with one arm while he makes his pursuit to the kitchenette. He silently thanks Claudette and Caroline for stocking the refrigerator with formula, coming prepared.

So far in the last twenty-four hours, Allie hadn't shown any vampire characteristics. There where witchy traits (of course, he'd have to be stupid not to notice those) but nothing vampy. He knew Bonnie would fry his brain if he began calling her a 'vampitch' or something.

Once the formula is prepared, he eases the bottle into Allie's mouth. She clamps down on the end with such ferocity that Damon winces.

"There it is," he chuckles.

Allie ignores him as she continues to suck down her late night snack, perfectly happy right where she is.

This was weird. All of it. They were still stuck here in this house, waiting for Claudette's signal for when it would be time to move. And he was taking his first steps into parenthood.

Nature's loophole they would call it, this amazing little person right here in his arms. Just a freak of nature. But nah, Allie wasn't a freak. She was just like her mother. He could tell she was going to be quite the badass one day.

He thinks about Caroline's words - 'Tell Bonnie'. Tell Bonnie what?

"Damon?"

Damon turns on his heel to see Bonnie standing in the doorway to the kitchen, the smallest of smiles on her lips.

"Damn, I was hoping you could actually get some sleep," he says.

Bonnie laughs softly. "Two things were missing," she says, her eyes darting to the still feeding Allie. The bottle is almost empty and once she takes the last few drops of the warm formula, Damon pulls it away.

"Give me that bottle, kid. Sheesh, there's the vampy qualities."

"Haha," Bonnie chuckles. "You want me to burp her?"

Damon shakes his head, easing the nearly conked out baby onto his shoulder once again. "Nah, I got it." He pats her on the back with the ease of an experienced parent and smiles when their daughter lets out a huge belch in satisfaction. "Atta girl."

Bonnie then walks over to the stove, pouring herself a cold cup of decaffeinated coffee. "I just can't get over how easy this seems to be for you," she says, bringing the mug to her lips.

"Yeah, well, I had a bit of experience," Damon says. At Bonnie's raised eyebrows, he nods towards the doorway, towards the living room where Stefan now slept. "Stefan was quite a fussy baby."

"Oh yeah," Bonnie says. "I forgot about that."

"My room was right next to his so he would wake up at promptly three AM, right on the dot, and start squealing like a banshee. I was always the first one that heard him, before the nanny or our mother. So I would have to get up and go make sure he was okay."

Bonnie watches Damon as he cradles Allie close to him, Allie's soft sated snores against his shoulder, her raven hair falling across her forehead. She bet if she touched Damon's hair and Allie's at the same time, it would feel exactly the same.

"Did you really do that?"

A voice comes from the other side of the room and the new parents sees their new attendee. Stefan stands there, looking so much like the skinny kid that Damon remembers him as, blearily eyed and so innocent.

Damon nods, shrugging his free shoulder. "Hey, I had to do something. You were disturbing my beauty sleep."

Stefan rolls his eyes, a smile playing on his lips that is more than a curve of the mouth. A smile that holds the long filled affection for his brother. And for the small babe in his arms.

Bonnie opens her mouth to retort but the words never quite leave. She lets out a groan of pain, her forehead and eyes flushing with an agony that was so incomparable by anything else.

And she's on her knees, her hands clutching at her head, the sounds of Allie's newfound screaming dull in her ears, as she finds herself being pitched forward into a darkness that is so unknown.

* * *

"_Bonnie, listen to me! Bonnie, listen!" _

_She can't hear much of anything else due to the roaring hurricane that is going on. The wind whips around her, plucking at her clothes, pulling on her hair. _

_Claudette? _

_Bonnie peels her eyes around into the dim, looking for any sign of the pretty brunette witch. _

"_Claudette, where are you?" _

"_I can't show myself because they have already found me," Claudette says. "Listen, the spell is down. They are coming for Allie. You have to move now! You and Damon, take her and get in your car and keep driving. Don't stop until you are at least two hundred miles away, do you understand?!" _

"_Claudette, what's happening? How do they know -?" _

"_Because the spell is down," Claudette says again. "I told you that the new one would only last a matter of hours. They can find you now." _

"_Have they found our exact location yet?" _

"_No, but they will soon! You have to go now!" _

"_Claudette! Claudette!"_

_But Claudette is gone, a mere voice in the wind. _

"_Bonnie!" Another voice is calling her. Another - so familiar. "Bonnie!" _

_She turns around, looking to where that voice has come from. _

"BONNIE!"

* * *

When Bonnie yanks her eyes open, she finds several pairs of worried eyes staring down at her.

"Oh, god, I fainted, didn't I?"

Caroline reaches down an arm and gently pulls her to her feet, steadying her with a steely grasp.

"If you call rolling around on the floor and yelling nonsense 'fainting', then I'd say yes," comes Enzo's voice.

Bonnie ignores him, her eyes peeling for one other set. Damon.

Damon is still holding a now snuffling Allie, watching her closely. When their eyes meet, she nods and he pulls the baby girl closer.

"Claudette," Bonnie says. "The Gollums have her. The spell is down and -"

"Oh, god," Matt whispers.

"They're coming."

**.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**Welcome to the world, Alexandra Bennett-Salvatore. **

**I had to have Caroline and Damon have it out and no, she does not have to forgive him right away. Damon was right, Caroline kind of would have had the right to walk away from Allie and not try to help her but that's not how Caroline is built. She loves Bonnie and she loves that little girl, it doesn't matter about her feelings against Damon. But he knows that he owes her big time and his apology, his true apology is the first step. **

**I am so trying to fix Defan here, to fix the atrocity that the show has produced and try to put it back to what LJ Smith so lovingly created. **

**The battle lines have been drawn. The Gollums are coming for Allie and with that there is going to be a huge price to pay. **

**Review? **


	8. sacrifice

_**sacrifice**_

* * *

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

'and i could give you my devotion  
til the end of time  
and you will never be forgotten  
with me by your side  
and i don't need this life  
i just need...  
i've got nothing left to live for  
got no reason yet to die  
but when i'm standing in the gallows  
i'll be staring at the sky'  
**-'somebody to die for', hurts**

**.**

**.**

**.**

They wait in the Camaro at the edge of the swift dirt road. Allie lays cradled in her Bonnie's arms, asleep and oblivious to the world. She shifts and sighs occasionally, curling closer to the warmth of her mother.

Damon sits in the driver's seat, staring over the edge of the steering wheel, his eyes glazed over. Intermittently, he will glance over at Bonnie and Allie, gazing at the both of them so ardently like he is trying to memorize every aspect of their faces. But he doesn't look for very long.

* * *

_The room goes black moments later. _

_Bonnie yells, her arms cast out. Power crackles from her fingertips. Light comes from her hands, light different from what Matt had given back to Allie earlier. This light was almost red. It was unlike anything she had ever created before. _

_The warning - she doesn't even stop to think. _

_She reacts._

_The whole house begins to tremble with the force of that power. She can feel the heat underneath her feet, racing up her whole body. _

_Damon yells out, his arms tightly around the screaming Allie. Stefan throws an arm up to his eyes to shield them, the other reaching out towards Damon and Allie. Bonnie can hear voices, voices calling out but she doesn't pay attention to them. _

_And then - _

_The shaking stops. _

_Damon opens his eyes, Allie still cradled protectively in his arms. She is still whimpering in distress but he notices something in her jade eyes. There's no fear. _

_He looks around, taking in his surroundings. Stefan is gone. Bonnie - Bonnie! Where's Bonnie? _

_A cough alerts him and he whirls around, finding her pulling herself to her feet from the kitchen floor. With his free hand, he helps her up, steadying her as her knees begin to tremble. _

"_What the hell just happened?" he asks. "Where's -?" _

"_I sent them back," Bonnie says, her eyes wide and round, staring at her hands like even she can't comprehend that she created that kind of power. "They're okay. They're back in Mystic Falls, protected. For now." _

_Damon lets out a huff of agitation, struggling slightly to hold onto a severely agitated and squirming Allie. _

"_And why did you do a thing like that? They're Guardians! They can help!" _

"_And they are vulnerable because of that!" Bonnie replies with a whispered growl. "Do you think I can have their deaths on my conscience?!" _

"_Who cares about them?" Damon says cruelly. "At least you would be alive and with our kid!" _

_Allie starts to scream again. Bonnie sighs and reaches out for her. Damon doesn't argue and carefully shifts the newborn back to her mother. _

"_I care about them," Bonnie says. "Letting them die, I would be no better than Sean! Now I can do right by my friends and by my daughter." _

"_And how do you expect to do that?" Damon says. "We are still here, like sitting ducks." _

_Bonnie waves one arm out, like she is trying to shake away a cramp. "Well, prepare for takeoff because you and Allie are going to go too. I can handle Sean." _

_Damon's handsome face contorts for a minute, attempting to understand. _

_And then he does. _

"_No!" _

"_Damon -" _

"_What good would come of that? You would be dead and they can still come after Allie and the others."_

_Bonnie narrowly shakes her head. "There's a spell," she whispers, her voice bordering on defeat. "Claudette would have done it but she's not here anymore." _

_Damon's own voice drops. "What do you mean?" _

"_With my death, a shield would be cast in front of Allie. In front of you and everyone else." Bonnie steps closer, Allie now asleep and cuddled in her arms. Her own eyes radiate a different kind of power. A power of unspeakable love. _

"_This shield, it's different from any cloaking spell," she says. "It's nothing that Sean or any of his little followers will ever be able to penetrate." _

"_Because it's pure," Damon whispers. _

_Bonnie nods, moving away from him. Hot tears suddenly fill her eyes and spill over, so quickly that she can't control them. Damon sees those tears. _

"_If there is anything, _anyone _worth dying for, it's her," she says quietly. _

_Bonnie finds the kitchen table and sinks down into a chair. Damon follows, slipping down to his knees in front of her and Allie. _

"_Damon -" _

_Damon barely inclines his head from side to side. He sighs softly, reaching up and taking her hand, their fingers linking lightly and above their daughter. _

"_Then we do it together," he says. _

* * *

There had been some arguing, cut short by Zander and Lisa showing up. In a blur, they had wound up here, on this dark deserted road, far away from any kind of life.

"They're here."

Bonnie looks up to see headlights approaching slowly, and then those headlights develop into a sleek red car. She should have known that Stefan wouldn't have been able to go very long with out that car.

Stefan parks his car about forty yards away. He gets out first, followed by Caroline from the passenger's side. They stand there, their forms silhouetted by the headlights. Bonnie is suddenly reminded of two warriors, two graceful and beautiful fighters that have been through the ringer. But they are still standing.

Damon gets out of the car, jogging around the front and opening up her side. He holds out a hand to which she takes, rising slowly to her feet. Allie grunts a little but sleeps on.

They walk together, as a family, towards their loved ones.

Caroline darts forward first. "Bonnie, what happened?" she asks. "Are you three all right?"

"We're fine," Bonnie says. "Just fine."

"How did you do it?" Stefan asks delicately.

"How can you even ask that question, Stef?" Damon chuckles dryly. "She's Bonnie."

There is a familiar and very rare smile that pulls the corner of Stefan's lips up and he shrugs.

"You've got a point."

"On any other day, I would be blushing," Bonnie says softly.

"Enzo and Matt?" Damon asks.

"Back home," Caroline replies simply, with no other explanation then that. Her eyes dart towards her sleeping niece again before she looks back at her friend. "What is going on?"

At Caroline's tone, Bonnie launches into the shortened version of Claudette's warning. Of the spell that she had performed to get the four of them out of there without being spotted by Sean and the others.

"There's a reason why we asked you guys to come here," Damon says when Bonnie falls silent. "A favor."

"Anything," Stefan says, his voice almost inaudible.

Bonnie is suddenly struck by a memory. A memory of just a day ago before this happened. Before any of this happened.

Caroline is taking a thousand pictures on her camera, her voice bubbly with a valuable kind of joy that she hadn't felt in so long. She gets into a tussle with Enzo over the camera when she manages to take too many pictures of him, winning that tussle by the way.

Stefan and Damon sitting together, laughing together. Being brothers.

Bonnie and Matt chuckling over some idiotic joke, Allie curled in her uncle Matt's arms. Whenever she is jostled by his still uncomfortable strength, she lets out a grunt of annoyance. Matt soon learns to read those sounds and cooperates.

Just hours ago, they were happy. At peace.

"..._No!" _

Bonnie comes out of her thoughts. Damon had told them...

Stefan has suddenly blurred in front of Damon, their faces mere inches apart. He has a grip on the lapels of Damon's leather jacket, a grip so tight that his knuckles are turning white.

"Bonnie, are you okay with this?" Caroline asks, her eyes glittering with tears.

"It was my idea, Caroline."

"Your idea to _die_?" Caroline bursts out.

"Do you think I want to die, Caroline?" Bonnie replies. She gently shifts Allie over into Damon's arms and approaches her friend. "Do you really think I want to die _again_? Of course not!"

"Then _why_?"

"Because -!" Bonnie's voice lowers, cracking with strain and unshed tears. "It's Allie's only chance," she whispers. She walks a few steps forward, catching Caroline's hands with ease. "And I need you to do this for me. I need you and Stefan to take Allie and leave. Get the hell out of here and don't stop running until -"

"Until what?" Stefan whispers. He's released his hold on Damon.

"When it's safe," Damon murmurs. "You'll know."

"There's got to be another way," Caroline whispers for the fourteenth time in a matter of hours. "There _has _to be another way!"

"But there isn't," Bonnie says. "And this? Sean and Sofia are not expecting this. They do not know about this."

"About what?" Caroline sobs. "What is this about?!"

Bonnie catches Damon's eyes over the top of Stefan's head and he nods, the smallest incline of the head.

"With this, Allie will be safe. All of you will be safe. Sean won't be able to touch her or you."

With those words, an understanding leaks into the air. A heartbreaking result but an honest one.

And Caroline stops fighting.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she pulls something from her pocket and presses it into Bonnie's hand. Something small, round, and very cold. Twining it through her fingers, Bonnie brings it up to eye level and sees that it's a locket.

Her fingernail finds the spring catch and the lid pops open.

In the dim moonlight, Bonnie can barely make out the pictures. But she does.

On the right side, is Allie. She is cuddled in a pair of arms, wide awake, and giggling at the camera about something. Her hair, her silky raven hair so like her dad's, sticks up all over her head. Her green eyes are large and happy.

But on the left side -

On the left side is a photograph of Damon. Bonnie isn't sure how Caroline got this picture, not that she really needs to know. Damon gazes up at the camera with a look of indifference that is just so Damon-y that Bonnie has to find the will in her to smile.

Clasping the locket shut, she loops the long chain up and pulls it over her head. She looks up in time to see Caroline pressing a similar locket, a bit more manly designed, into Damon's free hand. Damon grips the cold piece of jewelry without examining it, not needing to know what is.

He walks over to Bonnie and shifts Allie back into his arms. He turns on his heel and walks straight for his brother, pulling him into his arms in a hard embrace. Stefan lets out a grunt of surprise but immediately wraps his arms around Damon and pulls him closer. The embrace is all too brief but all too overdue.

"Did you hear that, Stefan?" Damon asks him when they pull away from each other. "Did you listen to every word?" Stefan nods, his eyes hard, keeping the grief back. "I trust you more than anyone," Damon says. "Keep that little squeaker safe."

Of course, Caroline has to ruin the mood by turning to Bonnie and mouthing _"Squeaker?" _

Stefan nods again. Damon reaches up and gently brushes his hand against his cheek before turning his back on him totally. He leans over a still sleeping Allie in Bonnie's arms and presses his lips to her forehead.

"You be safe, squeaker," he whispers. "You will be happy. Remember how much your mother and I love you."

A tiny sob leaves Caroline.

"And don't be afraid to kick a little ass."

"Damon!"

"Well, she will be," Damon says. "If she's anything like you."

Bonnie hides her smile. Allie snuffles contentedly in her slumber. Damon steps back slightly and Bonnie pulls her closer.

"Normally, I would tell you to ignore everything that your father says, but he's right," she murmurs. "Kick some ass. Be happy. Have the time of your life. And -" her voice cracks, turning on a dime into a sob. "And don't you dare ever forget how much your daddy and I love you."

Allie grunts again, and this time, it's different. A gentleness, a purity fills the air. A moment that can't be matched by any kind of romantic love or even family love.

This is the love of a parent and a child. A love that is so unconditional, so filled with good.

"She'll be happy, Bonnie," Stefan speaks up. He stands just a few feet away, his hands dug deep into his coat pocket.

"I know," Bonnie whispers. "I know she will be." And she hands Allie to Caroline.

Caroline holds Allie close, her arms wrapped around the small baby protectively and holding on. She looks back at the Bonnie and Bonnie nearly falls apart again. She steps up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to Caroline's forehead, her other hand resting against the crown of Allie's head.

"It's okay," Bonnie whispers.

"No, it's not," Caroline says, shaking her blonde mane.

Bonnie doesn't have an answer for that. Not that she wants too. She turns away, desperate to get her eyes off of Allie but that doesn't last long. Her hug with Stefan is clumsy at best but she can tell that he understands. When she finally peels her eyes away to peer up at him, she can already see the grief and the agony etched there.

Stefan leans down, brushing his lips to the crown of her head. A tiny tear escapes and Bonnie catches it in her palm, wiping it away like it never existed in the first place.

"It's okay," she mutters in Stefan's ear. He gazes back at her, accepting, and half hating her. Not that she can blame him one bit.

Cold hands close over her shoulders, gently pulling her back. She watches, her heart hammering it's numbered beats out in her throat, as her dear friends walk back to their car with her daughter. With her daughter who will probably grow up calling Stefan 'Dad' and Caroline 'Mom'. Bonnie watches this, hating herself. Hating Sean. Hating the whole world because this wasn't fair. None of this was fair. She shouldn't have to do this again.

But then she remembers what the alternative is and she knows. She knows that she would never put Allie through that kind of life.

Her daughter will live a life. A life with love, happiness, and safety.

Without her.

They stand there together, Damon's arms looping her from behind as the sleek red car backs up and turns around. The taillights glow in the dark and become smaller and smaller and smaller as the car gets farther away. The car with their old life. Their daughter.

And then, they're gone.

* * *

Stefan continues to drive for a solid twenty miles before he can't take it anymore.

Caroline watches him out of the corner of her eye, watching the grief and hatred take over at last before she mutters a quiet plea. "Pull over, Stefan."

He obeys immediately, kicking the car down a gear and bringing it to a rest on the grassy plain. He kills the headlights this time, and turns towards her.

"This isn't fair," he whispers. "This isn't fair!" His voice wakes Allie up but for some reason, she doesn't cry. "None of this is right."

"I know," Caroline whispers. "I know, Stefan."

"This little girl," he gestures almost violently towards Allie. "She is supposed to be with her parents right now. She is supposed to be beginning her life. Damon and Bonnie are supposed to be - this isn't fair!" With those words, he bangs on the steering wheel with one fist so hard that his knuckles crackle and begin to bleed.

Caroline's own hand snaps out, grabbing his wrist before he causes anymore damage to himself or the car. But just as her fingers close around his wrist, something peculiar happens.

It's like the night that Matt completed his transition and was having a hard time getting through it. Allie had leant a hand then and she was still in her mother's womb.

A light escapes from Caroline's hand, taking the both of them a second before they realize it came from Allie. That light, it catches onto Stefan's hand, covering it with a warm glow and when it fades, his hand is healed.

"Oh," Caroline murmurs.

Stefan stares at an awake Allie. She gazes back at him, with eyes so like her mother's, looking so much like Damon -

_I need you, Uncle Stefan. _

With his tears still drying on his cheeks, Stefan leans to his side and brushes his lips against his niece's forehead in the same way he had kissed her mother.

_I'm here, kiddo. _

_Keep fighting. _

* * *

He opens his own locket and finds one photograph inside. A photograph of Bonnie, holding Allie in her arms. Allie is wriggling around in her mother's embrace, gurgly, drooly, and chortling away like she knows the punch line to some joke that no one else knows. Just three days old and already so full of mischief and life.

Bonnie just holds her, gazing up at the camera with a love and a peace in her eyes that Damon practically adores.

And he makes his choice.

* * *

"Sean? Are you all right?"

Sofia gazes at her mate, watching from her seat but not daring to get close. Sean is crouched over the solitary table in the dark room, his hands resting against his temples. His eyes are closed and lips pursed, concentration etching in every line on his face.

"Give me a moment, _amour_," he murmurs, practically shooing her away.

Sofia obeys, stepping back to where the other witch sits, bound at the wrists and feet, one solitary large rope looped around her middle. A small trickle of blood leaks from the deep cut on her forehead.

Claudette shoots her an angry look before casting worried eyes towards Sean.

"It's no matter, Claudette," Sofia says softly. "You never should have left us."

Claudette swallows against the large rising lump in her throat before she answers.

"I don't need to watch this to know that they are going to kill you," she whispers. "You won't win this, Sofia."

Sofia gazes down at this woman who she had once thought a friend, eyeing her thoughtfully like some high school science experiment.

"We already have."

Sean gasps, bringing both girls' attention back to him.

"Sean?" Sofia says again.

"The child ..." Sean says. "She's close by. Alert Zander and Lisa."

Claudette's heart is beating so loudly she swears they can hear it.

"Already done," Sofia says. With a swift movement, she sweeps from the room, leaving the two of them very alone.

Sean turns towards Claudette, watching her for just the briefest of moments. He presses an index finger to his forehead, rubbing against the heavily tanned skin. Bringing it away, his finger glows with a darkened light, mucky and unclean.

He brings the finger to Claudette's face. She slams her eyes shut, gnashing her teeth together in an effort to push it away. To fight with whatever she had left so he couldn't take anymore.

"Why, Claudie?" Sean asks. "Now that we are alone, why don't you tell me the truth? Why?"

"Because," Claudette spits, her eyes still shut. "Because what you are doing isn't right."

"It's how you became a part of us," Sean says with a smile.

"I know."

"And yet, until now, being here, being a part of this coven has never seemed to bother you. Why the change, _amour_?"

Claudette cracks open an eye at last, long lashes clinging together with dried tears.

"I don't think I can put another child through this," she says softly.

Sean sighs with an air of exasperation and desolation that is so freaking faked.

And then his whole hand clamps down on the top of Claudette's head.

Her mouth forced open, brilliant white light leaks from her open lips and into his. She tries to cry out and finds that her voice is gone. Her magic continues to pour from her mouth, into his. He gulps it back like a dehydrated man.

A scream finally makes it's out her lips, weak and feeble. Sean's hand breaks from his hold and casts out in front of him.

She begins to gasp, blood spurting from her nose and lips. Soon, from her eyes and ears. Heavy coughs bring up more congealed goo and she chokes.

"_Claudette!" _

* * *

Bonnie doesn't know what comes over her when she sees it. When she sees Sean killing Claudette.

Power bursts from her, Power unlike anything she has ever created before. This kind of power, it's angry. Full of an intense passion and hatred that she hardly ever feels but this time, she feeds on it.

Sofia materializes out of the air, taking her place beside her master. Sean whirls around, poised and ready.

Damon rushes first, his fangs bared and eyes black with blood. He barely makes it two steps before Sofia has him flying into the opposing wall of the abandoned schoolroom. Just as his shoulder makes contact with the wall, he feels it break under the pressure.

Bonnie is holding her own. She and Sean stalk each other, two cats ready for battle. When Sean throws the first bite, Bonnie catches and easily tosses it back.

Damon pulls himself up, springing from the wall and throwing a punch at the back of Sean's head. His fist makes contact and Sean's face hurtles forward, right into his own hand. The force from that self inflicted punch causes his nose to start to bleed.

But Sean responds.

"Really, Damon?" he says with a laugh. "Is that the best you can do?"

"_Damon!" _

Invisible ropes are suddenly wrapped around his wrists, pulling him up into the air like a marionette puppet. Up, up he goes. Down, down he goes. None too gently.

The ropes are cut quickly and he falls to floor. For some reason though, this isn't tiring him out. In fact, he's almost exhilarated.

Bonnie yells in frustration, turning her attention to Sofia while Damon jumps into her dance with Sean. The two women don't even bother to try their own, Sofia striking first. This time, Bonnie is ready for her and she is suddenly flying backwards into the wall. A horrible snapping sound tells her that her collarbone is broken right in two.

"_Sofia!" _Sean screams. His scream is terrible. Animal. He turns back to Bonnie, his face twisting, poised with a terrible hate. "Your daughter will be mine."

"Over my dead body."

"Great idea."

Damon tries to get there, he really does. But something is pushing him back. Pushing him right back out the heavy double doors and into an unceremonious heap in the hallway. He leaps to his feet, making for those doors but they slam shut with such force.

"_Bonnie!" _

And he remembers something. Something horrible.

A night like this, a school like this, three years ago. Another great enemy, going after her with a force and the only way she can live is to die.

This time though - this time it doesn't work that way.

He bangs on those doors, yelling and screaming and shouting. Nothing he does can break those doors down.

He watches her through horrified eyes and screams her name again.

Bonnie looks back at him, blood streaming from her nose. She continues to look at him, never taking her eyes away. He gazes right back.

And the spell hits her right in the chest.

* * *

Arms much softer than she expected catch her as she falls. She curls into those arms.

She can hear him. She can feel his heartbeat, slower than hers but still so powerful and strong. A heartbeat she could fall asleep listening too.

"You idiot," he curses her. "Why did you do that?"

She blinks at him sleepily, barely struggling to hold onto consciousness because this is right. This is so right. Sean and Sofia are gone and she doesn't care.

"Because ..." she whispers. "It's better this way."

"No, it's not," he says stubbornly. "This is not the way it's supposed to be."

"Yes it is, Damon," Bonnie reminds him. His thumb is stroking away a tear that has fallen down her cheek. "Because our daughter needs you. You can -" There is a hitch in her breath. It suddenly occurs to her that she feels no pain. Only a heavy kind of blanket, draping itself over her body. Pushing her down.

Taking her away.

Damon's face is fading. She can still hear his voice and it's that that makes her fight her way back to the surface.

"...Bonnie...I...you..."

What did he say?

And then there is no darkness. No pain. No heaviness.

Just light.

* * *

Damon stays right there, holding her in his embrace.

He should have known. He should have freaking known that she would do this, that she would pull another martyr move and make sure -

The reason why Damon doesn't move even when he hears Sean reenter the room isn't because of a stupid desire to be a hero. To die like Bonnie.

It's to die _with _Bonnie. To hold on ever so tight and never let go.

Allie will be okay. She will.

So when the spell hits him right in the back, he falls too, his hand still linked with hers.

He gasps out but there's no pain. Is there supposed to be?

Images flood his eyes. Voices touch his ears.

Stefan's smile - Caroline's laugh -

Enzo's bad one liners - Matt's gentleness -

And he is being swept away on a rush of light, the color of Bonnie's eyes.

* * *

She feels the last dredges of life beginning to leave her.

Her half lidded eyes struggle to open, to find her own anchor to hold onto. She has to find it. She has to find the strength.

His voice -

_Remember who you are, Claudette. _

At that moment, a radiant shine begins to rise up from Bonnie's chest. It twists and turns in mid air, lazy and oh so beautiful. As it rises even higher, it forms a flower.

Just then, the same magnificence pulls itself out of Damon's chest. The light finds Bonnie's, curling around it and going into it's graceful and glorious dance. As it rises even higher, there is a sudden burst of energy and -

The flower lets go, practically exploding in the air and casting out.

Claudette feels the power, she feels the glory.

The glory of a love that no one, not even she will ever be able to understand.

* * *

He flies awake with a gasp, his fingers clawing at his chest.

Once his vision clears, he makes out Caroline leaning over Allie's cradle. She catches his gaze, her own eyes filled with tears.

"You felt that," he states softly.

Caroline nods, a tear spilling over. She swipes it away with the back of her hand before turning back to the sleeping infant.

Allie lays on her side, her already lengthening hair draped lazily over her forehead. Raven hair, the exact same color as her father's, even the shone of blue when the light hits it. Pale skin. Slightly square chin and pointed nose.

Eyes so like her mother's.

Caroline leans down, touching the inside of Allie's open hand with the tip of her finger. More tears slide down her cheeks when Allie's fingers close around her finger and hold on.

"Mommy and Daddy love you," she breathes, delicately pressing her lips to the crown of her head. "They love you so much."

* * *

The two women touch down.

The younger of the two pushes her dark hair over her shoulder, gazing at the dead witch in the chair. She sighs sadly, the whisper of a smile on her lips.

"Brave girl," she murmurs to her companion. "Will there be someone waiting for her?"

The older woman nods. "There already is. Claudette has already found peace."

The dark haired woman nods, relief spreading through her for the briefest of moments. "Thank heaven." Her eyes fall towards the floor. "And them?"

"Their time is far from over," says the other woman. "Come, Antonia. You know what to do."

"I haven't been here," says Antonia Salvatore. "I don't -"

Sheila Bennett rises up, facing the other woman with her green eyes blazing. "But you never stopped being Damon's mother," she says firmly. "Stefan's mother. And right now, your boy needs you. You protect your own."

Antonia nods. "You are right."

Without another word, she picks up the edge of her long skirt and kneels beside her son, touching his forehead.

Before she Wakes him, she has to just look at him for a minute.

When she was alive, every person she met had exclaimed about how much her little boy had looked like her. The same raven hair that hung long and messy, the same pale skin, nose, and chin. But her Stefan was more like her as a person. Sometimes, it had frightened her how alike Damon and his father were.

She hadn't wanted to call him Damon when she was carrying him. The name she had chosen - Gabriel - a name that she had liked for a long time.

But Giuseppe had insisted on 'Damon' and for some reason, she hadn't fought him on this.

The first moment she held Damon Angelo Salvatore in her arms though, it didn't matter what his name was. She loved him even more.

She had watched both of her boys from her place. She had watched the men they had grown into, and had felt the pain of their transformations into vampires. She had wept with Stefan when Damon had fled, and followed Damon close behind while he was on the run, hoping and praying that he would find the strength to turn around and go back to his brother who needed him.

And then two women came into his life. One woman that both of her boys loved.

There was something about Elena Gilbert that she didn't care for right in the beginning. A false exterior that covered the true temptress underneath. At least, that's what the ladies of the afternoon would have called her.

She wishes she had still been alive when Katherine Pierce had strolled into her sons' lives because - well, to put it simply, Katherine wouldn't have stuck around very long.

Don't ever underestimate the power of a mother.

When Bonnie showed up, Antonia knew then. She knew that that was the woman that her boy would need more than ever.

Caroline Forbes was a different story. Her joyful spirit and her insanely high pitched giggling made her head spin just a bit but her light - her inner peace despite all the tragedies, she made Stefan happy. And that was all that mattered.

Antonia's eyes drift over to where Bonnie lays. The very tips of her cocoa fingers curve around Damon's.

"There isn't much time, Antonia," Sheila Bennett warns her quickly. Antonia watches through wide eyes as Sheila reaches over and picks up Bonnie's form with ease and then - oh, lord - they disappear.

Her eyes swivel back to her son and she takes his hand, bringing it up to her lips.

"All right, my love," she whispers. "Time to wake up."

**.**

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* * *

**Oi, before this chapter gets to long, I thought I'd better end it here. **

**So just in case if anyone didn't understand, Bonnie and Damon are temporarily dead. The light that Claudette saw rise from them is the protective shield that has now spread around Allie and the others. Sean and the Gollums haven't realized it yet. **

**Yes, Claudette is gone, dying a hero. **

**Reviews? **


	9. antonia

_**antonia**_

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**(a/n: The FC that I have chosen for Antonia Salvatore is the beautiful Famke Janssen from the show Hemlock Grove.) **

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'i remember tears streaming down your face  
when i said i'll never let you go  
when all those shadows almost killed your light  
i remember, you said 'don't leave me here alone'  
just close your eyes, the sun is going down  
you'll be all right, no one can hurt you now  
come morning light, you and i will be safe and sound'  
**-'safe and sound', taylor swift and the civil wars**

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**.**

**.**

He stirs under her touch. A light groan leaves his lips.

His eyes open and focus on her.

"It's all right -" she tries to say but her son is up and lurching away from her. "Damon -"

"No, no, no. I always knew I would go to hell but I don't need some demon wearing my mother's face. So get the hell away from me, you useless bitch!"

Antonia stands, her hands on her hips, her eyes blazing with motherly fury. "Damon Angelo Salvatore, I don't care how old you are, I am your mother and I can still take you over my knee!"

Damon stares at her, his mouth hanging open. He stares for so long that Antonia can't help but start laughing.

"_Figlio_, you have to say something," she says after a moment.

Damon finally peels his eyes away from her, glancing around the darkened school room.

"So this is it? This is the after life?"

"Not particularly," Antonia says, ignoring his brush off. "This is the in-between. You have to make a choice."

"Make a choice?" Damon repeats. He glances back around. "Where's Bonnie?"

"Your _Bonita _is near," Antonia says firmly. "She's safe."

"I didn't know I would be in danger here," Damon says, shifting down onto an overturned chair. His eyes look everywhere but his mother. It suddenly occurs to him that they are alone. Completely alone.

"Not necessarily," says Antonia.

"And why are you here?"

"Your friend, Claudette," she says. "She used the last bit of her strength to call out to me and Sheila Bennett."

"So Claudette's -?"

The unspoken word hangs in the air like a ton of bricks.

"She's found peace. She's served her purpose," Antonia replies.

"She was just a kid," Damon snaps.

"Going against everything she had been taught to believe shortened her life severely. She knew that. She wasn't afraid to die." Antonia then sits down on another plastic chair, perching on it with the lightness and grace of an Southern belle.

Damon can't help but smile slightly when he sees this. This is real. She is real.

His mother.

"What choice do I have to make?" he whispers.

Antonia bows her head, her raven hair so like his - like Allie's - spilling down around her shoulders.

"You can continue on," she says. "You can choose to come with me."

"Come where?" he asks softly.

"To the real other side," Antonia says. "To a place that is more beautiful and more peaceful than anything you have ever dreamed about. Where there is no pain. No suffering. Just love and a joy that you have always wanted."

"And the other?" His voice comes out in a croak.

Antonia swallows noisily, bringing her green eyes up to his grey ones. Green eyes with little flecks of gold - Stefan's eyes -

"You can go back. You can go back and fight."

* * *

The two vampires continue to run.

"You better be right, Donovan or -"

"Or what?" Matt snarls to his right. "You'll kill me again?"

And Enzo doesn't have an answer for that.

The school is in their sights.

Matt thinks it almost poetic that the Gollums chose a school to kill Bonnie and Damon in. How many times -?

He doesn't want to think about it.

He just hopes that they get there in time.

* * *

That's all she really needs to say.

Antonia rests her cheek on her closed fist, gazing off into an abyss that he can't see. He watches her and she watches something else for what seems like hours before she speaks again.

"Bonnie Bennett ..." she whispers. "She is someone I pictured finding you. Making you complete."

"What do you mean?" Damon asks.

"You have had many loves, _figlio. _Some were real and some...weren't."

A hot poker of shame begins to spread down his back and across his body. He knows exactly what his mother is talking about.

"You knew," he states.

Antonia nods her head and for the first time, he sees anger in her eyes. Anger at him and anger at the world that made her sons into vampires.

"What I hated the most," she begins slowly, shakily. "Is that you didn't even fight it. I understand that you needed to survive but you didn't even try to hold onto the man that you were before."

"Because I had lost everything!" Damon snaps. "I lost you. I lost my home. I lost Katherine -" He rises quickly, kicking the chair away.

"At least your brother made an effort to hold on," Antonia says.

Damon flies out of the chair with the speed of a vampire. He whirls around on his heel, glaring furiously in her direction.

"Oh, yes. Let's all cheer for Saint Stefan and how he will always be better than the big bad Damon. How he will never amount to being as good as his younger brother who was favored by all. By his father, by the women he loved, even by his own mother."

Antonia rises to her feet, her eyes like two pieces of green ice. She reaches over and grabs him by the lapels of his jacket, pulling him close so they are eye to eye.

"You really think that you are worth that little? And you are really going to use that as an excuse for what you have done over the years? I understand that you were turned into a vampire, I get that. I get that you had to do what you needed to survive. But to allow yourself to turn into a monster for so long just because you were pissed off at the world and at your brother - that is not how I raised you to be!"

Antonia is breathing heavily, her eyes filling with angry, hopeless tears.

"I saw the beginning of it when I was still alive," Antonia says quietly. "And I did nothing. I did nothing to remind you that you were your own person. That your only responsibility was to take care of yourself and to take care of your brother. Instead -"

"Stefan took care of me," Damon replies.

"All I ever wanted was for my boys to be happy. But you weren't. Neither of you."

Damon doesn't say anything because...because she's right. Even when they both had Elena, even when they were both with Katherine, even when all of that was over - there was always an unspoken competition between the two of them. At least, from his point of view.

Standing here, listening to his mother, listening to her disappointment - it hurt even more than a stake to the stomach.

But what sticks in his brain is that even though Antonia was disappointed in him, she loved him anyway.

Stefan got that trait from her.

* * *

They find the bodies, abandoned and left to rot in the room like garbage.

Matt smells the stench of death before they even hit the school. He yanks on Enzo's arm, pulling his maker alongside him with surprising strength.

"Enzo -" he chokes. "Enzo!"

Enzo doesn't answer, only runs faster.

They hit the double doors and barrel through, following the scent. They happen to the lounge and - oh, god.

_Oh, god. _

"Bonnie..." Matt whispers. His eyes fill with boiling hot tears. "Oh, Bonnie..."

"Hey!" Enzo's voice pulls him back to the surface. Matt looks back only when he slaps his arm. "Not now, okay? Not now."

When Matt can focus again, Enzo is already leaning down over Damon's body. He has shucked off his jacket and laid it over Claudette's front, covering her face in a sign of respect.

"I will come back for her," Enzo says softly, gesturing towards the dead witch. "Right now..." his voice trails off but Matt knows. It is hard to ignore the true meaning behind those words.

Matt crouches down beside Bonnie, brushing a lock of hair off of her face. Her face that looks more peaceful than ever.

"Because it was worth something," he murmurs to himself.

He slowly shifts his hands underneath and picks her up, cradling her in his arms.

It hits him then, though, when she doesn't wrap her arms around his neck.

One time, about three years ago, he had gone over to Bonnie's house to check on her. This had been right after her grandmother had passed away and - well, she wasn't handling it well. He hadn't heard from her in a few days and he was worried.

He found her drunk as a skunk.

After helping her through the immediate aftershocks of getting hammered for the first time, he had scooped her tiny body up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom. She was smaller than Caroline, easier to carry. Lifting her up, she had done the same as Caroline, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder. By the time he had gotten up to her room, she was already passed out cold.

But this - oh, god - this wasn't then.

Bonnie was dead.

He was holding his best friend's dead body in his arms.

He watches out of the corner of his eye as Enzo lifts Damon up like he weighs no more than a kitten. Even seeing the grief etched into his sire's face, that hurts him even more.

Because this is real. This was so real.

* * *

He feels a twinge of grief that is not his own.

Bringing his eyes back to his mother, he lets out a tiny unneeded huff of breath. He lowers his long body back down onto the chair, his head sinking into his hands.

"You should hate me."

"I don't."

"Why?"

"Because I have seen it," Antonia says quickly. She suddenly slips down to her knees in front of him, pulling his hands away from his face. "I got that privilege to see how passionately, how perfectly, how _beautifully_ you love. And how you want to be loved like that. You want someone to love you. To love all of you and to not excuse you for everything you do. You want someone who will match you barb for barb. Wit for wit."

Damon lets out a laugh that sounds suspiciously like a sob.

"_Mi caro_, you have that now."

"You mean Bonnie," Damon whispers.

He feels his mother's hair shift against his knees as she nods.

"Yes, Bonnie."

"It sounds like you have made my choice for me," he murmurs, raising his eyes to meet hers.

Antonia shakes her magnificent head, her green eyes darkening with a heartbreaking sorrow that he hates so much.

"I would love for you to stay," she says slowly. "I would guide you on and you could try to find peace. But -"

"But what?" Damon asks.

"Just looking at you, I can see it already."

"See what?"

"That you won't be at peace. You still have so much time left to live. To truly live."

He gazes at his mother thoughtfully, fighting back the question that is slowly forming on his lips.

"Why did you leave us?"

Antonia's heart breaks in an instant. Her lovely face twists and tears spill from her eyes, slipping down her cheeks. Her hand reaches out and this time, he takes it in both of his.

"Oh, _bambino_. I did not want to leave you. Either of you," she whispers.

"Wasn't there anything that could have been done?" The question is childish, he knows that. But he needs to understand.

Antonia shakes her head again, her palm swiping against her eye. "No. I knew something was wrong but by then, it was too late. And times were different then, you know that. Illnesses today that are like the sniffles would have killed someone back then."

Damon sighs softly, twisting his hands so they close around hers more securely. He just had to be sure...

* * *

He doesn't even move when he hears Enzo clambering through the door, shucking off his mud stained jacket in the process.

It had started to rain about an hour ago, most likely making the process of burying Claudette much more difficult. While Enzo had been gone, Matt had deliberated with calling Stefan and Caroline and telling them what had happened. He knew that they knew what was happening, that they had fled with Allie at Bonnie and Damon's request but - well, they had a right to know.

He half listens to Enzo moving around in the other room, muttering curses under his breath. Something shatters and there is a much louder snarl, followed by something that sounds suspiciously like a sob.

Matt rises from his chair, leaning against the doorframe for a brief moment before leaving. His eyes dart to Bonnie, laying on her back on the couch, her hands crossed on her stomach almost like she was just in the middle of a sleep.

Damon lays on his back on the other, one hand falling down to the floor. His head is turned to the side, mouth slightly open, but no breath coming out.

They were dead. What was he supposed to do?

Something was telling him not to bury them yet. There was something nagging at the point of his brain - don't do anything yet.

There was nothing that could be done for Claudette. The young (old?) witch had fought bravely and in the end it had cost her her life. But - but he would never stop being grateful because of her, Allie was getting to live a life that she deserved.

Even if it wasn't with her parents.

He finds Enzo digging around in the refrigerator, pulling out a few spare bags of blood that had been shoved way in the back.

"Where did you bury her?" he asks softly.

Enzo is silent, apparently engrossed in an expired milk carton.

"On the edge of the forest line," he says, his back still to him. "By the creek."

By the creek. The swimming hole. A beautiful spot. Claudette would definitely prefer that than being left in a school where her body probably wouldn't have been found until the opening of the new year.

"She'd like that."

* * *

"I have to go back."

Even at the sadness in his mother's eyes, he knows he is making the right decision.

Antonia bows her head, her lips barely moving. "Yes, you do."

Damon quickly gets to his feet, his eyes darting around the darkened room almost like a frightened horse.

"I have people that care about me. Stefan...Bonnie."

He can see the determination in his mother's face, the relief despite the heartbreak.

"Yes," she says again, a bit more forcefully.

"And my daughter," he says, almost like an afterthought. "Have you seen her?" The way he says those words like he is just making polite conversation with a stranger.

Antonia laughs then, a tear falling from her eye. "Oh, yes I have. She - she is so beautiful."

"Bonnie named her after you."

She nods. "I know. Alexandra Antonia Bennett-Salvatore." The name rolls off her tongue so easily. "A name fit for a queen. And she will be."

"Will she?" Damon can't help but ask. "Will Allie make it?"

Antonia chuckles softly. "Oh, she will."

* * *

A loud banging on the door of the Salvatore mansion nearly startles Matt out of his wits.

The protective spells are hanging heavy around the property. Only a few people should be able to get across. Even a regular innocent human would get the strong urge to turn right around and walk away.

Enzo suddenly blurs beside him, his teeth fully bared. "Whoever it is, we kill them," he says with a snarl.

Matt agrees.

His own teeth lengthen to their full sharpness. He licks the edge of one, slicing his tongue. His own blood fills his mouth and for some reason that gets him going.

There had been too much pain. Too much sorrow.

He wants to kill. He wants to taste fresh blood spilling down his throat.

The door opens and he lunges, an animalistic growl leaving his mouth. He lunges, fangs blazing, eyes black with blood.

He hears a sickening crack and sees Enzo fall, his head twisted to the side and eyes wide open and unseeing. A pair of strong hands latch onto his shirt front and push him up against the wall with a force that he actually recognizes and that scares the living hell out of him.

When his vision focuses, he finds Stefan glaring at him, his own fangs to their full extent, his eyes hard and unforgiving.

"Matt!" Stefan yells, pulling him from his daze. "Matt, it's me!"

Great heaving breathes leave him and he latches his hands onto Stefan's, pulling them away from his neck finger by finger.

"I - can - see - that!" he snarls, finally pushing away Stefan's slackening grip. He points towards Enzo's downed body. "And that?!"

"He'll be out an hour," Stefan says, his back already to Matt.

And then he sees them.

* * *

"Your Alexandra is going to be an amazing woman, _figlio." _

That simple sentence, those words, and he knows.

Looking back at his mother, he sees her gazing at him with such tenderness, such gentleness that he begins to squirm. No one had looked at him like that in so long. No one.

But those stupid tears, those tears that he hardly ever let himself cry, they insist on making an escape. When her thumb catches them, he leans into her touch.

"I'm sorry, _Mamma_," he whispers.

Antonia smiles sadly. "Don't be. Because I'll be with you. Right here," she presses a finger into his chest, right above his heart. He catches her hand again, brushing his thumbs over her skin. Touching her one last time.

Because this was it.

The warmth begins at his toes, tingling and gentle. It begins to move up his feet and through his calves, all the way up to his torso.

He holds onto his mother's hand.

"It's okay, baby," she breathes. "You can let go."

"Damon?"

Bonnie's gentle voice eases his anguish and he reaches out, capturing her hand in his.

"Bonnie, I'd like you to meet my mother," he chokes out, not even for an instant embarrassed at his display of emotion.

He gazes at Bonnie for a moment and can see she has made the same decision that he did. And why wouldn't she? He glimpses Sheila Bennett standing just a few feet back, looking just as magnificent and strong as the first moment he had laid eyes on her in the year of 1992.

He falls back too, allowing his mother and Bonnie to greet each other with a warmth and a spirit like quality that is so pure, so delicate. Once that is over, Antonia makes for him again and captures him in an embrace that he remembers feeling for the last time when he was twenty years old and leaving for war.

A mother's embrace.

"Be strong," she whispers in his ear. "Be brave. Be happy."

He doesn't answer, rubbing his hand up his mother's back. Holding on tighter. He doesn't want to let go.

"Tell your brother that I love him," she murmurs.

"I will."

Those three little words do not pass her lips directed towards him because he already knows. She's his mother. He gets it. He understands now.

And then she lets go.

* * *

He doesn't move.

He can't.

He didn't want to let himself believe even though he knew it was true. He hated the truth. He hated reality. He wanted to disappear into a world where there was no pain - no hatred - no loss.

But he knew that wasn't going to happen. Only death would bring that kind of release.

He brings the bottle of scotch to his lips, taking a long draft that would knock a normal human on his ass.

"Stefan?"

His eyes dart up to where Matt leans against the connecting doorway. He has his own bottle which is nearly gone. Behind him, he can hear the grunt of Enzo slowly waking up.

Stefan can read the unspoken question on his lips and he shakes his head.

"No," he mutters. "Not yet."

"It has to be soon," Matt whispers before fading back into the shadows.

Only a few candles are burning, casting their eerie dancing light around the floor. The shadows bounce off the walls, reminding him of those same shapes that frightened him when he was a little boy.

"Do you remember when we were little? I think I was about six or seven years old and there was a huge storm outside. With the rain battering down on the windows and the thunder cracking, I was sure that there was a huge monster outside, coming to get me," he whispers. A tear falls from his eye, landing on his knee.

Stefan takes another draft from his bottle. His eyes dart to the side where Bonnie lays on the other sofa. Someone had laid a blanket over her, right up to her neck. Almost to make it like she was sleeping.

"Most brothers would have kicked their little brother out, but you didn't. You let me get in bed with you and wait out the storm. Later on, I wondered if you were just as afraid of the thunder as I was and that's why you put up with your annoying little brother."

Stefan rises to his feet and turns away, his eyes darting back to Bonnie.

"You deserved better, Bonnie," he breathes. "Both of you deserved better."

With tears finally slipping down his cheeks, he allows the now empty bottle of scotch fall through his fingers and softly thud onto the carpeted floor.

Matt reappears at the door and Stefan nods at him.

"Go ahead."

* * *

Those two words, those two little words –

They break Matt's heart into more pieces than he thought possible.

Because if Stefan Salvatore had given up, then why the hell should the rest of them keep going?

Why should he be a good vampire?

Caroline had gone, disappeared with Allie to keep her safe. Damon and Bonnie were dead. Stefan was broken. Tyler and Jeremy were gone. Enzo was on the rocky road back to Hell.

What's the point in being good anymore?

Matt sighs softly, shifting from his spot against the doorframe. He turns to leave, but something catches his eye.

At first, he thinks that it's just Enzo slowly waking but no –

Damon's finger's, his right hand, his index finger and middle finger –

They're moving.

Matt steps closer, peering at the older vampire. His ears shift into their full mode, listening for any sounds. Sounds of a heartbeat – of just one single breath.

And then –

"_STEFAN!"_

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**Aren't I evil? **

**I have struggle with this chapter for so long and it's not the best. I wanted to write it mostly about Damon and also Matt's own struggles. Damon wants to stay with his mother and move on, maybe find peace. And Antonia wants him to stay but they both know that he still has a hell of a lot of life left to live. He's got a few perfect reasons to keep going. **

**And I wanted Antonia to confront him about how he has lived. How he treated his brother, how he worked in his life. It wasn't how she raised him to be. She raised him to be a good person. And now they are both realizing that there is one person that is making him want to be a better person. Hint, hint. **

**So yeah, Mama Salvatore is a Bamon shipper. **

**Review?**

**Italian translations: Figlio: Son, Mi Caro: My Darling, Bambino: Baby**


	10. i would give the world to you

_**i would give the world to you**_

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'a million suns that shine upon me  
a million eyes you are the brightest blue  
lets tear the walls down that divide us  
and build a statue strong enough for two  
i pass it back to you  
and i will wait for you,  
cause i would give the world to you'**  
-'this is the new year', a great big world**

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Like his feet had wings, Stefan was by his side in an instant.

Matt pulls himself away from that, falling to his knees beside Bonnie. His ears strain at their full hearing, trying desperately to find what he so wants to hear.

_Thump...thump...thump..._

Oh, god...oh, god...

A great gasp rips through Bonnie's chest and she's awake.

Matt catches her before she topples over, holding her against his chest with the utmost of gentleness that he can manage.

Bonnie claws at his shoulder, taking in huge gulps of the chilly night air.

"M-Matt-!" she chokes against his chest. "Matt!"

"I'm right here, sweetheart," he breathes into her hair. "I'm right here."

Another gasp and Damon sits bolt upright, choking and coughing.

Stefan's hands rest against his shoulders, steadying him. Matt glimpses the held back emotion on his friend's face, but this time, this look is of an absolute joy.

A third gasp.

Enzo finally sits up from his crumpled position on the floor, looking around.

"What'd I miss -?"

* * *

"How do you feel?"

"Alive-ish."

"How do you really feel?"

"Like do I feel human?" Damon replies, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Nope. Still a vamp."

With that, he takes the bag of O positive right of Stefan's hands and begins to knock it back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches Stefan watching him intently. Almost like he is about to disappear into thin air.

"Stefan, can you stop staring?"

The younger Salvatore shakes his head, turning his eyes away for just a moment. "Sorry."

Damon shakes his head, setting the now empty blood bag down on the coffee table. "No. I am. It's just - people don't ordinarily come back from the dead three times in a life span."

Stefan smirks half heartedly, sighing softly to himself. "Understandable. Twice on my docket."

Damon chuckles without a hint of mirth in his tired eyes. He reaches around, taking one of the beers that Stefan had sat on the coffee table beside the blood bags. He hands the other to his brother, popping the top off of his along the way. There is a light chink of noise and Damon can't help the real smile that pulls the corner of his lips up.

This is real. He's alive (ish) and here with his brother.

His eyes continue to gaze into the merrily crackling fire. A light shiver creases his form and he shifts down on the couch, subconsciously closer to his brother.

His mind reaches out. He searches for Bonnie's presence, feeling ever so close. He wonders if the two of them will ever be far apart from each other again.

"I saw our mother."

The beer that Stefan had been bringing to his lips stops in mid air. He brings it down slowly, cradling it between his hands. No words leave his mouth.

"She was there to ... _help _me make my decision. Whether to continue on into the after life or to go back," Damon whispers. "But it wasn't all lollipops and candy canes. She was _pissed_."

Stefan finally turns wide eyes towards him. "Why?" he asks.

Damon stares right back. "Seriously, brother? I haven't been the best person slash vampire these last years. Hell, I treated you like garbage."

"Damon -"

"And I don't blame her for being pissed. After Allie was born, I finally started to get it. What an asshole I am."

"Damon -"

"And I had no reason to be a dick. Basically, just an insecure jerk who didn't realize that he had a hell of a lot to be thankful for already," he finishes softly.

At those words, Stefan understands.

This was Damon's apology. This was Damon's way of saying 'I love you' to him without even saying the words and making this into a giant chick-flick moment.

Because there was nothing in the way now, they could return to being the brothers they were before becoming vampires. Before their mother died.

And all could be right in the world because the Salvatore brothers would always have each other's backs.

"How did she look?" Stefan asks softly. "Was she happy?"

"She's happy now," Damon murmurs. "I don't think she ever found true peace because we weren't - well, you know."

"Yeah," Stefan whispers. "Yeah, I know." His thumb creases the top of the now empty beer bottle. He doesn't even know why he is still holding onto the glass object. Maybe just something to do with his hands. Something to focus on.

"You have her eyes," Damon says suddenly. Stefan's own eyes swivel in his head and stare at him with such a wonder that Damon knows he should be uncomfortable but he isn't. This moment...it's right.

He lifts a hand up to his own forehead. "And her brooding forehead. I swear, the poor woman had wrinkles by the time she was twenty five with all the worrying she did."

Stefan coughs, covering up something that sounded like a sob.

"I remember little things about her," he says quietly. "I remember how she looked. How she spoke. She always talked in a whisper, I don't think I ever heard her raise her voice."

"I don't think she really had the strength to raise her voice," Damon murmurs. "After she got sick, she just took to her room." A sudden smile creases his lips as a memory becomes evident. "I remember one time, when we were little, you were about six. Father was off doing something and he had broken his promise to you to take you swimming. Man, you threw a fit."

Stefan chuckles lukewarmly.

"The nanny couldn't even settle you down. And then Mother came home right at that moment from her trip. She swooped in, scooped you up and you calmed down right away. She was always able to get you to stop acting like a snot nosed little jerk."

The half chuckle turns into a real laugh.

"She hollered for me to come down from my room and when I got there, she announced that we were all going swimming."

"Did she really?" Stefan asks, his smile still wide and whole.

Damon grins too. "The cook packed a quick lunch and we went down to the same swimming hole. You fell in twice and I had to fish you out."

"Sheesh. Sorry."

Damon shakes his head. "Nah, it was fine. Mom was getting ready to throttle you though, you scared her so much. She kept saying 'Child, you are going to drive me to drink your father's 'tea''. You were only six, you couldn't know that Father's 'tea' was actually whiskey."

And in that moment right then and there, the two brothers remember the good. The pain is forgotten, the loss, the anger. All of that is forgotten.

Because the now is all that matters.

"I wish I could remember more of her, Damon," Stefan says softly after their rarely shared laughter dies down.

"It's understandable," Damon shrugs. "You were only fourteen when she died."

At those words, the smile fades from Stefan's face. "She sounds like she was -"

"Pretty damn awesome," Damon murmurs.

"I have always wondered," Stefan says so quietly that Damon almost misses it. "If she hadn't died, would we have ever - "

Damon turns back towards the fireplace, allowing his own empty beer bottle to set back on the table in front of them.

"If she was still alive when Katherine showed up, I doubt Katherine would have been in our lives for very long at all," Damon says simply. He stares into the fireplace for a few more minutes. His back is rigid with a different kind of tension than normal. "She loves you, kid."

This time, Stefan does allow his tears to fall. And Damon has a good enough grace to pretend not to see them.

* * *

"Coming back to life isn't as fun as it used to be, huh?"

Bonnie smiles despite her inhibitions. She rises to her feet and turns right into Enzo's embrace, allowing the older vampire to hold her close for just a few moments. She's not so pissed at him anymore.

"Maybe the third time is the charm," she says, gently pulling away from his hug. She catches his wince when she pulls away. "How's the neck?"

"Still hurts like a bitch. How's the -?" his voice trails off as he gestures towards her chest.

To the spot where Sean's spell hit her.

Bonnie forces a smile. "Not even a scratch," she says. "Uh - I owe you a thank you." She turns away, running a hand down the back of her own neck. "Thank you for everything that you did. For me and Damon. For Claudette -"

The loss of Claudette had hit her hard when Matt had gently broken the news to her. It comforted her slightly that she had gone out fighting because, well, because that was the way every witch wants to go. They want their death to not be in vain and Claudette's wasn't. She would make sure of that.

Enzo catches her flailing hands, holding them lightly in both of his. His thumbs caress the backs of her hands with such gentleness and ease that Bonnie nearly quivers.

When the next words come out of Enzo's mouth, she wants to return them. She really does.

"Bonnie," he whispers softly. He doesn't give a damn who might be listening. He just doesn't care anymore. "Bonnie, I need to tell you something."

Bonnie's heart begins to sped up, thumping out it's glorious beat.

"Enzo..."

"I never thought I would get over Maggie," he whispers. "The simple thought of her in these last seventy years, it hurt even more. I had vowed that I would find a way to bring her back so we could have the life together that we both deserved."

Bonnie sighs delicately, already knowing what's coming. And it hurts even more.

"Until I met you," Enzo breathes. "And now...now I am realizing that maybe I did let her go." He swallows noisily, his midnight eyes glancing wildly to the side before they move back to her.

Bonnie's face falls. Enzo doesn't miss that for a second.

"Judging by the look on your face, you do not feel the same way," he states, his voice edging back to hardness. Enzo begins to turn away. "I'm sorry. I never should have said anything."

"Enzo!" Bonnie's hand darts out and closes over his elbow, pulling him back. It surprises her even more that he lets her. "Enzo, please don't." And for the life of her, she doesn't know why she does what she does next. But suddenly, the tears are blinding her and streaking her cheeks, splashing onto her front. And before she knows it, a pair of strong arms are bringing her in.

He holds her while she blubbers into his chest, allowing her to wipe her nose on his shirt like a four year old child. Her tiny body wracks with sobs and he pulls her even closer.

When she's all cried out, Bonnie disentangles himself from his embrace. She scrubs her hands across her face, trying desperately to rid any trace of her pain. She doesn't do this. She doesn't break down like this. Not in front of people.

"You all right now?" Enzo whispers, gazing at her with concern.

Bonnie shakes her head. "No," she says woefully. "There is a huge hole right here," she points to her chest. "And every time I breathe, there is just so much more pain. And I hate it. God, I hate it so much."

"I know."

After another second, Bonnie has her wits about her. She reaches back up and places a hand on Enzo's neck, gently turning his face back toward her.

"You have _no _idea how much I want to say it back," she whispers. "But I can't."

"Because you'd be saying it to the wrong devilishly handsome guy," Enzo says with an attempt at humor. Even though Bonnie can see the overwhelming pain brimming just below the surface.

Bonnie gives a watery snort, hating the words.

Because they're true.

And she hates that even more.

Enzo pulls her in again and this time, she returns the hug. There is so much that is said in that hug. So much left unspoken but already heard.

"I'm not her, Enzo," Bonnie whispers in his ear. "But you will find her. You'll find that great love."

With that, she presses a quick kiss to his cheek and pulls away, leaving him standing there alone in the kitchen.

* * *

He finds her on the front porch, staring off into the night.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," she says softly, her back still to him.

Damon manages a half smile before lowering himself down onto the step beside her. Once he sits, he thumbs his side pocket, pulling out Stefan's cell phone. After hitting a couple of buttons, he places it right underneath Bonnie's nose.

Caroline is waving at her, Allie in her arms. Allie is shaking fat fists at the camera, giggling that beautiful high pitched giggle that newborns rarely do. Her hair is already longer, her eyes bright and happy.

Their daughter.

"Stefan took that right before he left to find us," Damon murmurs.

Bonnie clutches at the phone like it is her lifeline. Her eyes feast hungrily on her daughter, on the tiny babe that she missed so much.

"Do you feel it?" Bonnie asks. "It's still there."

Damon nods against her shoulder. "I feel it."

"So we can do this," Bonnie mutters. "Sean and the others will never see us coming. They would never even -" Her voice breaks on that last word. Damon catches her free hand.

"Bonnie, look at me." When those silvery green orbs find his indigo hues, he continues, choosing his words carefully and delicately. "We're alive," he whispers. "And out there is a little girl that is waiting for her parents to come and get her. Squeaker is waiting for us."

Bonnie's eyes dart down to Damon's outstretched hand.

And she takes it without hesitation.

"Then let's go get her."

**.**

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* * *

**Argh, I hate short chapters. But what I wanted to write just wasn't fitting in here. **

**So in answer to a few possible questions, yes, the shield is still up around everyone. In fact, it's even stronger. But our gang will be testing their limits next chapter. They realize that they actually have the upper hand here with the Gollums not knowing that Bonnie and Damon are alive. **

**Damon and Stefan are finally good. They had their heart to heart about their mother, and I still think that the whole beginning of Damon hating Stefan came from when their mother passed away. I am still considering bringing Antonia back for just another couple of seconds so Stefan can see her. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.**

**Review? **


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